Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) has written to its counterparts in Himachal Pradesh and Haryana and flagged widespread pollution of the Sirsa rivulet by industrial and other toxic waste. The PPCB officials in a letter to their counterparts has stated that the contamination is ultimately reaching the Sutlej in Punjab.The PPCB Regional Office, Ropar, has sought immediate intervention from the Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board and Haryana State Pollution Control Board following inspections conducted after multiple complaints regarding waste accumulation at Ropar headworks.According to the communication, a copy of which was available with The Tribune, Ropar MLA Dinesh Chadha, accompanied by officials of concerned departments, visited Ropar headworks on August 23 and found massive quantities of industrial and other solid waste dumped and accumulated there. The waste was found impeding the flow and causing pollution in the Sutlej. The PPCB has maintained that the incident was not an isolated one and such accumulation was a routine affair.The pollution trail was subsequently investigated during a joint visit by the MLA, PPCB officials and the police to areas of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana on August 25. The inspection team reported a “horrible and dangerous state of affairs” regarding widespread pollution.One of the major concerns identified was a municipal solid waste processing facility located along the bank of the Sirsa River at Kenduwal village, behind the Common Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in Baddi. The facility was found overflowing with solid waste, with leachate entering the Sirsa river, according to the PPCB report.The inspection team also alleged that pharmaceutical and other allied industrial units in the Baddi, Barotiwala and Nalagarh industrial belt were unauthorisedly dumping industrial waste into the Sirsa river.The report further stated that waste dumping was rampant along the Salad Nadi, where traders, primarily scrap dealers, operate from tin sheds. Large quantities of industrial and other waste were also found along the Balad Nadi in Haryana, near the Himachal Pradesh border. The dumped material reportedly included multilayered plastic, medicines, and pharmaceutical waste, which was being pushed into the Salad Nadi before eventually flowing into the Sirsa Nadi.Another major dumping site was identified at Marranwala Khad in Haryana. According to the PPCB, huge quantities of industrial and other waste were present there and were flowing into the Sirsa river.The pollution control board has highlighted the inter-state nature of the problem, pointing out that the Salad rivulet joins the Sirsa river, which ultimately flows into the Sutlej and carries the pollution into Punjab. It has called for unauthorised activities by traders to be stopped immediately and for the environmental damage already caused to be restored.The PPCB has also stressed the seriousness of the issue as the Sutlej is used by people in Punjab for drinking and bathing purposes. The board has forwarded its communication to senior officials, including the member secretaries of the Himachal Pradesh and Haryana pollution control boards and the deputy commissioners of Solan district in Himachal and Panchkula district in Haryana seeking necessary action.