The Sirsa river is carrying a heavy pollution burden by the time it reaches Ghanauli in Ropar district. The water quality data presented by the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) at the North Zone Council meeting reveals high levels of faecal and total coliform and violations of the prescribed biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) standard. The PPCB presented its data on the basis of water sampling study from July 2025 to March 2026.The PPCB data reveals that in March 2026, total coliform in the Sirsa river at Ghanauli touched 60,000 (Most Probable Numbers) MPN/100 ml, while faecal coliform reached 17,000 MPN/100 ml.Under Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB’s) designated best use criteria, water meant for organised outdoor bathing (Class B) should have Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) of not more than 3 mg/L, dissolved oxygen of at least 5 mg/L and total coliform of not more than 500 MPN/100 ml. For primary bathing water quality, CPCB prescribes 500 MPN/100 ml faecal coliform as desirable and 2,500 MPN/100 ml as the maximum permissible level.The deterioration was not confined to a single month. In August 2025, faecal coliform was recorded at 2,100 MPN/100 ml and total coliform at 9,400. In September, the figures were 1,700 and 9,400. October recorded 3,300 faecal coliform and 8,400 total coliform, while November recorded 2,600 and 7,000, respectively.In December, 2025 BOD shot up to 15 mg/L, five times the CPCB Class B limit. The BOD subsequently remained elevated at 4 mg/L in January, 6 mg/L in February and 4.8 mg/L in March.The PPCB readings at Ghanauli ranged from 4.3 to 7.5 mg/L which are higher than prescribed limits. The findings assume greater significance because the Sirsa ultimately joins the Sutlej system at Ropar. Pollution entering the Sirsa therefore has implications beyond the immediate river stretch as Sutlej water is used for drinking purposes in many parts of the state.The data also raises questions about the sources of the contamination. The sources said that the Sirsa’s pollution also needs to be viewed alongside earlier CPCB monitoring of the river in Himachal Pradesh. Monitoring stations around the Baddi-Nalagarh industrial belt had recorded substantial BOD levels, with the maximum cited in earlier assessments reaching 32 mg/L. The river had consequently figured among highly polluted river stretches in earlier CPCB assessments, the PPCB officials have held in their communication before the North Zone council meeting.Earlier, CPCB monitoring data recorded BOD of up to 39 mg/L downstream of Ludhiana and faecal coliform as high as 1.3 million MPN/100 ml. The later polluted river assessment recorded a maximum BOD of 140 mg/L for the Nangal to Harike stretch during the assessment period.The sources said that while Sirsa at Ghanauli may not show the extreme oxygen depletion as compared to some severely polluted stretches of the Sutlej but its bacterial contamination is already far beyond the levels associated with bathing quality water.CPCB’s class A standard drinking water source require total coliform of just 50 MPN/100 ml, BOD of 2 mg/L and dissolved oxygen of at least 6 mg/L. Class C, which permits a drinking-water source after conventional treatment and disinfection, allows total coliform up to 5,000 MPN/100 ml and BOD up to 3 mg/L.Against these standards, the 60,000 total coliform reading and 17,000 faecal-coliform reading at Ghanauli stand out as the most serious findings in the PPCB dataset.