With an aim to clean Indus River, a group of 15 volunteer students under the supervision of Dr. Jigmat Yangchan, Scientist in soil and water engineering, SKUAST carried out the cleanliness campaign on April 29 and 30 at Indus River, Choglamsar.

Talking about the initiative, Dr. Jigmat Yangchan said that while passing through the bridge every day she spotted the piled up garbage near Indus water which is very disheartening.

She said that Indus being at the top of Himalaya is the source of water for rest of the country and it is our responsibility to keep it clean for them. The ingestion of contaminated water causes many diseases like cholera, typhoid, dysentery and other diarrheal diseases. 

There are millions of species in the river which get directly affected. They have tested the status of water which is filled with garbage on the side of Indus and found the quality of water very contaminated, full of hazardous insects for our health, the fishes become blind and full of sore in their body from which we can clearly understand how badly the condition of the water is. 

Deachen Chuskit said, “I realised that the water we use is the same which we see here today, I have taken the sample of for test and came to know that the water is not in a condition to drink. We need to realise the importance of keeping the river clean in order to avoid the water-borne diseases.”

“People are found literally peeing in the water bodies even seeing that we are cleaning the river, we should understand that the water in which you are peeing is the water we drink and cook food in our kitchen”, she added.

Ume Kulsum a volunteer said that the lack of dustbin in the area leads to garbage disposal problem among the shopkeepers and public which resulted in disposing into river thereby polluting the water bodies.

Inspired by their initiative, representation of Ladakh Eco-saver and cultural welfare of Ladakh Stanzin Thardot also join them and sponsored tea and lunch on the day.