Kashmir Lake Pollution Reaches Half A Million Homes

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) I reached the Nishat pump station on a recent clear winter morning and watched dark drains flow into Dal Lake beside the intake that feeds one of Srinagar's largest drinking water plants.

The lift station pulled this water through heavy pipes toward the filtration facility above the road, and that single line connects to taps across large parts of the city.

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The Smart Cities programme entered Srinagar in 2017 with promises of modern utilities and sustainable supply systems. The city installed digital command centres and upgraded roads, while the core water network continued to depend on a lake that receives most of the city's untreated waste.

The contrast appears in public view along Boulevard Road where multiple drains from Brein, Nishat, and Ishber discharge directly into the lake within meters of the pumping site.

Engineers describe the Nishat plant as capable of treating around nineteen million gallons each day for nearly five lakh residents. The inflow at this location includes sewage, faecal discharge, household wastewater, and agricultural runoff.

The plant also receives a smaller share from Dachigam stream, though the lake remains the main source. Field observation at the intake point shows visible contamination before treatment begins.

A second major facility at Pokhribal near Lalbazar supplies more than one lakh people in Saidakadal, Kalaiandar, Makhdoom Sahib, Rainawari, and nearby areas.

The plant releases about four million gallons daily into the downtown network. Residents report discoloured water, sediment in storage containers, and unpleasant odour during peak supply hours.

Court records add a documented layer to these field observations.

In 2019, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court appointed a Committee of Experts to examine Dal Lake water quality and the functioning of sewage treatment plants around it.

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The committee reported in 2020 that these plants operate beyond designed load, receive weak maintenance, and release effluent below Central Pollution Control Board standards.

The findings also stated that roughly seventy percent of Srinagar's sewage reaches Dal Lake.

Three sewage treatment plants at Brein, Habak, and Hazratbal with capacities of 4.5, 3.5, and 7.5 MLD show partial operation during inspections.

The committee recorded absence of mandatory effluent testing before discharge, despite clear statutory provisions.

During site visits, I observed tankers transporting sludge from these facilities and unloading it along the Shalimar foreshore, a practice widely known among local residents.

The same pattern appears at another major drinking water source.

Doodh Ganga stream feeds the Kralpora treatment plant that supplies more than six lakh people in uptown Srinagar. Upstream municipal discharge pollutes the stream, and the National Green Tribunal imposed environmental compensation on Municipal Council Chadoora and Srinagar Municipal Corporation after confirming contamination. Payments crossed forty crore rupees following earlier penalties.

The government approved one hundred forty crore rupees for new sewage treatment plants along the stream two years ago, but construction has not begun. Meanwhile, the existing treatment plant continues to process polluted inflow for domestic use.

The city's water system therefore rests on two principal sources that receive untreated waste at scale, while treatment facilities operate under heavy load. Testing protocols show lapses, and expansion projects remain on paper.

Households, hospitals, schools, and offices draw from the same distribution network each day.

Read Also NGT Orders Pollution Probe Into Manasbal Lake Kashmir's Lifeline Canal Faces Crisis as Winter Nears

I followed the route from drain outlets to the lake, from intake pumps to filtration chambers, and from overhead tanks to neighbourhood taps.

The flow chart of this system shows a continuous path that begins at sewage discharge points and ends in drinking water storage inside homes.

Public discussion around smart infrastructure rarely addresses the origin of the water inside the pipeline. The monitoring data of treatment efficiency, real-time testing records, and contamination levels remain outside public access.

Srinagar promotes its smart status through control rooms and sensor networks while the most basic service travels through pipes that start at a polluted shoreline.

I left the Nishat pump station with the same image that greeted me on arrival, dark drains entering the lake beside the intake pipe that feeds thousands of homes.

And that single point explains the entire system more clearly than any official document.

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