By Dr Rajendra Singh* & Satyanarayan Bolisetti**
Vizag: It is an urgent requirement of the people of Vizag to protect their heritage places, hills and ponds, and the Sea. Vizagites are blessed with priceless treasures- the Bay of Bengal, mountain ranges and pristine water bodies. The city is a melting pot of multicultural and multi-lingual people living in harmony and peace.
There is something in Visakhapatnam for everyone of all ages and all walks of life to entertain themselves like Ramakrishna Beach, Visakhapatnam Zoo, Kambala Konda, Totlakonda, Kailasagiri, Araku Valley, for recreation.
We love Vizag, as Visakhapatnam is also known as. The primary reason is the city’s natural beauty. This serene city is also a seat to well-established educational institutes, like Andhra University, and Andhra Medical College and many private universities like Gitam, Bullayya College, Gayatri Engineering College and many more. It is leading in holistic health care that can be traced back to the century-old King George Hospital, Rani Chandramani Devi Hospital and the state-of-the-art medical services in the latest Healthcare City. It’s a city which is not lagging in employment either. Lakhs of citizens lead financially secure lives supporting their families and fulfilling their aspirational dreams with Vizag Port, Hindustan Shipyard, Hindustan Petroleum, Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, Pharma City, Gangavaram Port and so on.
All these facilities and infrastructures have come with a price and taken a toll. Today, our deep concern is about rising pollution, which ironically is also creating a big market for the health sector while harming all other sectors.
Our ancestors have always worshipped nature, they have never created garbage that degrades the soil, water or sea. We are pushing toxic gases into the air, and toxic effluents into the water bodies, filling the soil with electronic waste and non-biodegradable waste and adding fuel to the fire with the untreated sewers freely flowing into the sea in many areas and killing the marine life.
We don’t want to blame anyone but wish to create some sort of awareness of what is happening and brainstorm what is the way out.
The only way that strikes our mind is by following our Sanatana way of life. If we want to know about the Sanatana way of life, we need to know about our history and culture, to know our history we need to protect our heritage and culture. Please don’t think heritage means only what is recognised and listed by the Government of India. Everything over 100 years of existence or anything worthy of preservation is a heritage whether it is a building, a tree, a park, a tank, a market yard, a temple, a church, a masjid, a burial ground, a pilgrim or even a person.
Today we visited a few places in Vizag with a geologist, Professor Rajasekhar Reddy and a few like-minded people and we were appalled by the level of pollution at these sites.
Mudasurlova Reservoir, with the rainwater flowing through Simhachalam and Kambalakonda, is like amrut (nectar), if you can prevent pollution from the colonies and garbage dump in its catchment area. Unfortunately, we don’t see any such effort. Authorities should stop dirty drains flowing from the catchment area and shift the transit garbage yard from the catchment area immediately
Chillapkta Tank (Tagarapuvalasa Pond) used to be a lake that attracted 107 varieties of domestic and migratory birds and lots of butterflies. Today we noticed only Painted Stork and a few birds. If we prevent encroachments and prevent sewage contamination, this lake can be converted into one of the best eco-tourism spots. We felt like crying after seeing the pathetic condition of the lake today. We request authorities to remove encroachments and prevent pollution with immediate effect.
We were surprised to hear the news that a portion of Erra Matti Dibbalu (Red Sand Hills), was recently flattened!! How can this happen when this was declared a National GeoHeritage Site by the Union Government in 2016? We understand that authorities are now alert but they need to identify the culprits and book them, taking the experts’ advice on its restoration.
Rushikonda is a place where tourists used to come and stay at a nominal rent. But given its condition now, we don’t think any tourist can stay here anymore. Its natural beauty has been destroyed and is now neither suitable for tourists nor useful for any governmental purposes. Governments must not undertake constructions without people’s mandate, no one will give a mandate to destroy nature.
We learn that the previous State Government brought a General Order to reduce the protected area at Thotlakonda to 120 acres as against 3000 acres declared as a protected area in 2016 by the then government. We urge this government to restore the protected area as decided in 2016.
In the last 8 years, ever since we complained for the first time, no action has been initiated to prevent pollution or safeguard the lives of the fishermen on the shore or the marine life in the ocean. Every day 50 MLD (50,000,000 litres) of untreated sewer flow into the sea from this point alone and therefore, total pollution entered into the sea is an astounding 73,000MLD (73,000,000,000 litres). The loss to the livelihood of the fishermen can easily be assessed to be around Rs. 600 crores (Rs. 100 per day per person for 20000 people). However, who can assess the damage to marine life and damage to its carbon absorption capacity? On July 24, 2024, the High Court adjourned our case to August 7, 2024.
We want the new Commissioner of the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) to examine the Green Bridge technology and other bio-remedies with which flowing sewage water can be treated and to protect marine life and the livelihood of fishermen.
*Dr Rajendra Singh, a well-known water conservationist is the chairman of People’s World Commission on Drought & Flood, Sweden. **Bolisetty Satyanarayana is the general secretary of the Janasena Party, Andhra Pradesh.
