Sampriti Roy, University of Calcutta
River Neeru in the Bhaderwah area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Doda district was seen in dire straits after hundreds of fish were found abandoned at several places along the river.
It was only after the death of such a huge number of fish that the local people noticed the mysterious substances that were afloat on the river in proximity to Gupta Ganga temple, Atal-Garh area, and Parnala. These were medicines, reportedly meant for distribution among patients of COVID-19. The lot including hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, betamethasone, zinc tablets, among others, and had an expiry date of 2022 – indicating that the medicines were meant for COVID-19 patients.
The grave consequence of such an incident lies in the fact that River Neeru is considered the main lifeline of the additional district of Bhadarwah because besides being the source of income to local fishermen, it is also the main source of potable water and provides water supply to dozens of trout fish farms. So, for such an incident to occur in a river of such significance is a great concern for those dependent on it.
Reasons speculated for the incident include the delivery man having displayed an irrationality in action, triggered by fear of the disease, and dumping the medicines and the hospital authorities have deliberately dumped the medicines in the said locations. However, this isn’t the first time that medicines and/or medical wastes were dumped in a water body as the same was seen in Kancheepuram of Chennai in August of 2020. This incident had affected the water of the area to the point of total avoidance of the lake of 5,000 acres where the expired medicines were dumped.
What remains to be done is holding the guilty accountable- something that has been assured by the Additional Deputy Commissioner, Bhaderwah, Rakesh Kumar, and hoping that order is soon returned to the livelihoods of the people who depended on the River Neeru.
Also read: Two-in-one biopolymer favours binding to RNA hairpins over DNA
One thought on “The effect of improper dumping of COVID-19 medicines”