When President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam visited Sultanpur Lodhi last week to see the transformation of the holy Kali Bein, a rivulet-turned-polluted drain, Ludhianavis wished that he had flown over the Budda Nullah — the sorrow of Ludhiana — to see the extent of damage caused by industrial pollution.

The Budda Nullah, the Augean stable of the region, has been flowing dirty for the past several decades, contaminating groundwater, leaving poisonous and harmful residuals in vegetables, spreading disease in the areas it flows into before finally polluting the Sutlej after it falls into the latter near Mallikour village.

All this while, the government, the Punjab Pollution Control Board, and the Municipal Corporation, Ludhiana, have been making lofty claims about schemes for cleaning the nullah.

But it seems only an initiative akin to the Kali Bein can cleanse the nullah.

The Budda Nullah has been a bane not only of city residents but thousands of others who live alongside it.

Not only do the residents have to confront water-borne diseases every year, they also have to bore deeper tubewells to get drinking water, as the groundwater has been contaminated with pollutants from the nullah.

Notwithstanding the claims of the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) that all industrial units in the city were treating industrial waste, effluents, including lethal heavy metals like lead, nickel, cadmium and chromium, are finding their way into the nullah and the groundwater.

A number of studies have established how industries have been polluting the nullah. The Tribune had earlier this year exposed how three treatment plants, working for the past several years, treated just the sewer waste and not the industrial waste flowing into it.

Under the board rules, an industry can allow only a certain amount of pollutants to flow into the sewer, which joins the nullah.

But as the water has not been treated for industrial waste, the pollutant level has gone up considerably over the years.

A study carried out by a team led by Dr Mukand Singh Brar, Department of Soils, Punjab Agricultural University, had stated that a high concentration of toxic metals was present in tubewell as well as handpump water samples taken from the areas adjoining the nullah.

An earlier study by Prof B.D. Kansal (retd), Department of Soils, PAU, had shown that the nullah was clean till Dhanasu village, from where it entered the city. After that the presence of heavy metals shot up considerably.

The presence of heavy metals in the groundwater has become a cause for concern for city residents as these are known to cause cancer in humans.

Ironically, the water of the nullah, which eventually falls in the Sutlej, is consumed downstream in the Abohar-Fazilka belt and further down by residents of Rajasthan.

Ludhiana has already been grappling with air pollution, caused by effluents from industry, which has led to respiratory disorders.

According to an estimate of the TB Eradication Society, Ludhiana, over 10,000 persons have been afflicted by tuberculosis due to air pollution. The study reiterates that the flow of effluents is leading to the presence of high concentration of toxic metals in vegetables grown alongside the nullah.

The study claims that the concentration of lead, chromium, cadmium and nickel in the groundwater around the nullah was 21, 133, 280 and 300 times higher, respectively, than the permissible limit.

Similarly, the concentration of these metals in vegetables and other crops irrigated with this water was 4.88, 3.95, 0.25 and 3.68 mg per kg. The study suggests segregation of industrial and domestic waste as the only measure to save the nullah and the groundwater from contamination.