Need for a Musi River Policy

The State government needs to formulate a Musi River Policy to transform it into a real lifeline for the city with complete purification of water and environment

The River Musi, the historic and iconic river, is presently ecologically dead and decimated to a fate of a mere sewage nalah, receiving all kinds of discharges. Now, it is a poisoned and squeezed river, jeopardising the very survival of the people of over 50 villages. Most people identify Musi with its 20-km flow in Hyderabad city, forgetting that it flows for a distance of 266 km through Rangareddy, Hyderabad and Nalgonda districts.
River of diseases

• Besides domestic sewage, effluents of over 12,000 industrial units join this river
• Effluents are either being partially treated or not treated at all
• The scheme of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) has miserably failed
• Effluents from even outside the State like Bidar being dumped into the catchment basin
• Water quality dangerously decoloured by inorganic metals in the effluents
• Groundwater downstream of Musi severely contaminated.
• More than 50 villages are affected in downstream of the river.
• Villagers are suffering from a number of ailments

Compounding problem
• Govt wants to narrow the river into a concrete central channel and building roads alongside
• It also intends to reclaim the river area for roads and complexes, apartments etc
The river originates in Anantagiri Hills near Vikarabad in Ranga Reddy district. Musi River is a tributary of the Krishna River in the Deccan Plateau flowing through Telangana State in India. Hyderabad stands on the banks of Musi river, which divides the historic old city with the new city. Himayat Sagar and Osman Sagar are dams built on it which used to act as source of water for Hyderabad, writes Wikipedia.

There is extensive deforestation in the hills, where it originates. Water flow is entirely dependent on the South-West monsoon. The annual rainfall period is between 20 to 90 days, but no studies have been done on the sedimentation and/or soil erosion.

A recent report from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has listed the Musi river stretch among the most polluted rivers in India. Yet, Telangana government now wants to bring in more investment through industries. This only leads to dumping garbage, industrial waste and sometimes even medical waste in River Musi.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao who repeatedly refers to legacy of Nizam rulers ought to have taken a clue from them to clean the dusty Musi. When Hyderabad faced the fury of floods in 1908, the then Nizam called visionary engineer Sir Mokshagundam Vishweshwaraih to design a master plan to prevent floods.

On his advice, two reservoirs Osmansagar and Himayatsagar were built. They helped in meeting drinking water needs of the city. He also designed an excellent underground drainage system along with functional sewage treatment plant at Amberpet. Several small barrages (Katwalu) were built on Musi, downstream of Hyderabad and its water was utilized for irrigation.

With the outer ring road, many canals, streams and water flow avenues were curtailed around Hyderabad city harming the very existence of the river. Activists are cautioning that a full monsoon season could wipe out the `real estate’ gains, add to the human misery, entail enormous costs both for the government and the people and devastate the entire environment surrounding this river.

Apart from domestic sewage, effluents released by more than 12,000 industrial units located in 7 industrial areas like Jeedimetla, Nacharam and Katedan join this river. Some units are discharging their concentrated effluents directly by tankers into Musi at Nagole and Mosarambagh. Jeedimetla industrial estate alone discharges 55 million litres per day (mld) of domestic waste and 15 mld of industrial effluents.

Industrial effluents are either being partially treated or not treated at all. The scheme of Common Effluent Treatment Plants (ETPs) has miserably failed. In addition, now effluents from other parts of the State and even from outside State like Bidar are being dumped into the catchment basin. Even the sewage treatment plants (STPs) are inadequate and are not working properly.

As a result, groundwater in downstream of Musi is also contaminated. Water quality is dangerously decoloured by the inorganic metals present in the industrial effluents which are directly released into the river by the industries. More than 50 villages are affected thus in downstream of Musi River. Villagers are suffering from arthritis, skin diseases, diarrheic, stomach pain, malaria, paediatric and other diseases.

Unfortunately, instead of responding appropriately, government wants to beautify Musi, by narrowing it into a concrete central channel and building roads alongside. The government intends to reclaim the river area, by expanding the existing parallel roads and build shopping complexes, residential apartments etc.

There is an urgent need to study river Musi, especially downstream of Hyderabad, including a pollution impact assessment on the people, agriculture, cattle and vegetation. The State government needs to formulate a Musi River Policy to transform it into a real lifeline for the city with complete purification of water and environment.

Government should formulate policies for recycling waste water. Along the catchment area, water quality monitoring systems should be installed. Restoration done at Thames in London, and another river in South Korea should be emulated. They protected river dimensions and ensured sustenance of river ecology. (Writer Convenor, Save Rivers, an environmental action group, and Founder, Gram Vikas Bharati Foundation)

By Dr T Indrasena Reddy