Ponds disappearing in villages in Punjab

Chandigarh, Aug 28: The village ponds commonly known as "chhaper" or 'tobas', which once used to be the centre of thriving rural environment have been disappearing fast throughout Punjab.

Presently most of the village ponds in the state have either silted or are filled up, encroached upon or being used for disposing village sewerage. The sewerage dumped in ponds has been further polluting the groundwater in the surrounding areas.

Further, the filling of village ponds has reduced the natural recharging of underground aquifiers in the state.

According to a survey carried out by Kheti Virsat Mission, a Faridkot-based NGO, in 20 village of Ropar district of Punjab, only 21 ponds of two to four acre size exist in these villages. Whereas, earlier in just one village, three to four such ponds could be easily found.

Out of existing 21 ponds, seven had already dried up and 14 had dirty water. According to an estimate, more than 90 percent of the state's ponds have been encroached upon.

The Punjab State Council for Science and Technology is of the opinon that village ponds need to be deepened and made bigger as these can play a very important role in conserving the natural ecosystem. The Council recently conducted a study to determine the quality of water stored in village ponds and to develop a strategy for its optimum ultisation. The comparative study of the quality of pond water, vis-a-vis, quality standards for irrigation and rearing of fish has revealed that pond water was not only suitable for irrigation and development of fisheries, but also rich in nutrients, which is an added advantage.

The study has revealed that the renovation of village ponds will have a positive affect on environment, rural economy and groundwater which is declining at a very fast pace in Punjab.

The Punjab Government has already launched a plan to revive dirty village ponds for fish farming by adopting duckweed technology. Through this technology pond water can be cleaned and this could bring the BOD levels to less than 30 mg/I and in turn can act as feed for fish.

The effectiveness of this technique is being monitored by the State Council for Science and Technology.

UNI