Lack of civic sense is speeding up the damage to River Noyyal, which is already reeling under the indiscriminate discharge of industrial effluents.
Each day, plastic wastes comprising bottles made of Poly Ethylene Terephthalate and plastic covers along with other non biodegradable wastes are dumped into the river in large quantities by people staying along its banks and by shop owners. The stretch of the river between the Tirupur Corporation office and Kasipalayam is worst affected.
This has choked the flow of the water along the stretch resulting in water stagnation. It is fast turning to be a breeding facility for mosquitoes.
N. Shanmugasundaram, a social activist, feels that unless a ‘sense of belonging’ develops in the minds of the people, the water bodies could not be saved.
Blame
“Blaming the monitoring agencies alone cannot solve the problems of pollution, instead each and every citizen need to see River Noyyal as the pride of Tirupur,” he said.
S. Loganathan who stay in an area close to the river stretch said that there was no point in completely blaming the people for throwing the wastes into the open. The corporation could not place adequate garbage collection bins in the area.
When contacted, Corporation Commissioner K.R. Selvaraj said that the dumping of non biodegradable wastes would be stopped immediately by educating the people and by imposing fines against violators.
“We have provided bins in the areas wherever the littering was noticed in the past. But the people still throw the wastes into the river instead of using the bins,” he added.
