Massive pollution of the Budhabalanga river has raised serious concern here. According to a recent report by the Central Pollution Control Board, the Budhabalanga is one the 19 most polluted rivers of Odisha.
The river originating from Mayurbhanj flows through Baleswar before falling in Bay of Bengal. A huge population of these two districts depend on the river. Besides taking bath and drinking, they use the water of the river for irrigation purpose as well.
But unfortunately, the water of the river has been polluted to an alarming level as untreated water of the factories and plants besides municipal and urban areas is released into it without any restrictions.
The untreated water containing several spurious contents not only causes health hazards for the human populace and livestock, it is a grave threat to the aquatic population also. Sources said the untreated water released from various plants, factories and other establishments, mainly from the urban pockets, contains a lot of harmful chemical substances such as arsenic, lead, cobalt and mercury etc .
An activist working on environment protection, Prasant Padhi said pollution level of Budhabalanga has been alarming.
“First of all, the effluents released from the factories are not adequately treated to the required standard. Secondly, the household and urban waste, including hospital waste, is not treated at all and released into river. Large scale use of detergents in every household too causes imbalance of PH (Potential of hydrogen) and BOD (Biological oxygen demand and eutrophication ). These factors cause not only skin diseases, but destroy the agricultural crops as well as aquatic population."
Regional Pollution Control board officer PK Mahapatra said, “The waste released by the factories and plants are by and large treated by the units. Massive urbanization along the river bank and untreated urban effluents are the reasons for river pollution.”