“While pollution free environment can reduce the ecological imbalances in the surroundings of water bodies, the civic bodies in Jammu & Kashmir don’t launch any major public awareness campaign to raise the level of consciousness”
With both the local populations and as well as tourists throwing polythenes and plastic bottles into water bodies like river Jehlum, Dal Lake, Wular lake and Nageen lake, water bodies in Kashmir have virtually changed into epicenters of pollution. While the pollution in water bodies puts to risk the lives of thousands of people visiting their surroundings day in and day out during peak summer months, the authorities are unfortunately turning a blind eye to bad practices of the dumping of polythenes and plastic bottles on the banks of Kashmir’s top water bodies during peak summer months. The laxity shown by people in using dustbins for dumping polythenes and plastic waste on the banks of majority of the water bodies has gone unnoticed and as such lack of public awareness can be blamed for accumulation of poythenes and plastic waste near the banks of water bodies across Jammu & Kashmir. While pollution free environment can reduce the ecological imbalances in the surroundings of water bodies, the civic bodies in Jammu & Kashmir don’t launch any major public awareness campaign to raise the level of consciousness among both the people and as well as the tourists about the increasing pollution in the surroundings of water bodies across Jammu & Kashmir. While public consciousness about the use of dustbins for dumping the wastes in the surroundings of water bodies can improve the process of waste collection from such places, the collection of polythene and plastic wastes from the surroundings of water bodies on daily basis can reduce the chances of the accumulation of polythene and plastic waste at such places.
“While the civic bodies don’t tend to develop a working partnership with the people for clearing the garbage from the surroundings of water bodies particularly rivers and lakes, the threat of pollution in the surroundings of water bodies in Kashmir is rising day after day. As the term of the municipal bodies has come to an end in Jammu & Kashmir very recently, the onus of launching a major awareness campaign against the bad practices of accumulating polythene and plastic waste in the surroundings of water bodies lies on the officers and officials presently overseeing the working of municipal bodies in Jammu & Kashmir.”
Since most of the water bodies in Kashmir are shrinking in size due to increasing pollution in and around them month after month and year after year, the concerns over their preservation will consequently remain recorded only on paper if immediate measures are not taken for removal of garbage and launch of a public awareness campaign to generate more and more civic sense among the people. While the civic bodies don’t tend to develop a working partnership with the people for clearing the garbage from the surroundings of water bodies particularly rivers and lakes, the threat of pollution in the surroundings of water bodies in Kashmir is rising day after day. As the term of the municipal bodies has come to an end in Jammu & Kashmir very recently, the onus of launching a major awareness campaign against the bad practices of accumulating polythene and plastic waste in the surroundings of water bodies lies on the officers and officials presently overseeing the working of municipal bodies in Jammu & Kashmir.
