Cities dry,rural south learns self help

Thaltej resident Vishnu Prajapati,told The Indian Express: “They bring it from somewhere and dump it here and again take it away for landfill.”

But Deputy Town planner of AUDA Himanshu Thakkar said they are not in charge of the area. “These areas were merged with AMC’s New West Zone around 2006,so you have to speak to them,” said Thakkar.

Elsewhere,Deputy Commissioner M D Modhia,who is in-charge of the New West Zone,said he is unaware of dumping. “I do not know about this. I will look into the matter,” he said.

Nevertheless,the consequences,according to town experts,could prove disastrous. Prof R Parthasarthy from CEPT University said the dumping of debris not only neutralises AUDA’s previous plans of interlinking the city’s water bodies,but will “irreversibly contaminate” the ground water with lead and other toxic substances.

When Narmada water was first brought to the city through the canal network,AUDA had executed an interlinking of the city’s water bodies to prevent the water reserves from running dry. “You cannot reverse ground water contamination. Besides,contamination from such construction waste is more harmful. Filling up a talav will prevent the bore-wells from recharging ground water,” he said.

He added: “Western Ahmedabad has a large concentration of bore-wells,but most are defunct. These talavs recharge the bore-wells,and by losing these talavs,you might lose the natural recharge mechanism for the already low ground water table.”