Letters to the Editor: Increasing dust and pollution in Guwahati

Increasing dust and pollution in Guwahati

Over the past few years, the city has been undergoing rapid transformation. New roads, flyovers, commercial complexes, and residential buildings are being built to accommodate the growing population and modernise the city’s infrastructure. While such development is welcome, the manner in which many construction projects are being executed is creating serious environmental and public health hazards.

One of the most visible and immediate impacts is the rising level of airborne dust. Construction materials are often stored in open spaces without any covering. Trucks carrying sand, gravel, and cement ply the city roads without proper tarpaulin covering, spilling fine particles into the air. In addition, road excavation and building demolition works frequently leave behind mounds of debris for days, which, when exposed to wind and vehicular movement, disperse harmful particulate matter into surrounding neighbourhoods.

The consequences are felt daily by residents. Dust accumulation on homes, shops, and vehicles has become a common sight. Pedestrians and shopkeepers along busy streets often complain of coughing, throat irritation, and burning eyes. Medical practitioners have also observed a rise in respiratory ailments, particularly among children and the elderly. Such pollution not only degrades the quality of life but also poses long-term health risks that cannot be ignored.

It is important to stress that development and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. Cities around the world have successfully managed both by enforcing strict dust-control measures at construction sites. In our context, this means mandating that all construction materials be properly covered, making water sprinkling at active sites compulsory, ensuring debris is cleared without delay, and penalising violators who disregard these rules. Regular inspection and monitoring by municipal and pollution control authorities should be made a priority, supported by public awareness campaigns to encourage compliance.

If timely steps are not taken, the current levels of dust and pollution will only worsen as the city continues to expand. It is our collective responsibility—authorities, contractors, and citizens alike—to ensure that Guwahati develops into a clean, healthy, and liveable city, rather than one where unchecked urbanization compromises public well-being.

Bhupali Chakrabarty,

Gauhati University

Sports & politics

In the meantime, lots of hullabaloos have been raised by critics about India’s participation in the coming Asia Cup T20 Cricket tournament schedule to start in September next. Many nationalist agencies are raising a hue and cry over India’s participation in the Asia Cup, as in the group stage India is facing Pakistan, a nation with whom our country has no trade, commerce, cultural, land or air connectivity. Some also feel that as sports should not be mixed with politics, India should take part in the Asia Cup. One can cite an instance in the past where our tennis team refused to play against the then South Africa in the Davis Cup final because of South Africa’s APARTHEID policy. The matter is very delicate to comment on, as we understand that sports unites and has no boundary.

Dr Ashim Chowdhury

Guwahati

The musical chair

This is in response to the letter ‘Positive impact of eviction in Assam’ by Pragyan Rajmohan (12 August). Though I appreciate the author's view, still I would like to forward a different perspective on the same.

Though the dream for a much larger sovereign and secured Assam has been promulgated in the wake of eviction, the fact which is turning these claims to be dubiousis that these evictees are not purged out from Assam’s land and deployed to a foreign land permanently. Nor is there any clarification from the government regarding their rehabilitation in the buffer zones. These landless populace are now trickling warily to get relocated elsewhere inside the border, thus shifting the socio-economic disproportion from one place to another. The land confiscated from them and the land where they now couch in both belong to the Government of Assam. It has almost turned into a musical chair game in that when the clangour of the land expropriation ceases, all the striding evictees will settle wherever it is a safe haven for them, leaving the question of socio-economic security open. Though much has appeared in the media rubrics in prophecy and antipathy of eviction, the dream for an intruder-free Assam will always be attenuated if, or unless, a permanent, unreturnable transition path for those encroachers settling in the nation's land is worked out.

Kabir Ahmed Saikia

Rajabari, Jorhat

Faith in action

Outside many temples, you’ll always find a few people sitting quietly — some with tired eyes, some holding out their hands for a coin, a little food, or just a touch of kindness. Inside, the donation boxes grow heavier every day with the faith and offerings of devotees. Now imagine if even a small part of that money was used for the very people waiting at the gates. The temple could serve them a warm meal, give them blankets in winter, arrange medical help, or even teach them skills to stand on their own feet. Helping them is not separate from worship — it is worship. Feeding someone hungry, easing someone’s pain, giving someone hope — these are prayers too. And maybe, when the poor at the gates find relief, the gods inside will be the happiest of all.

Noopur Baruah,

Tezpur 

Noble cause

of organ donation

Nothing can be more salutary and noble than donating an organ to the needy. Kidneys, liver, eyes and heart are organs that are commonly donated. Even lung, pancreas, intestine and bone marrow can be transplanted to those suffering from chronic diseases of these organs. One kidney and lung and part of the liver can be donated when the donor is still alive. There are several misconceptions surrounding organ donations that require to be allayed by doctors and activists to relieve the anxiety of donors and their families so that they set an example for others to voluntarily register their names for donation. Any healthy individual can donate an organ, and those below 18 years require parental consent.

Statistics reveal that more and more Indians are coming forward to donate their organs, which is a healthy sign. India accounts for approximately ten per cent of global organ donations. Only China and the United States lead India in organ transplantation. Nearly 19,000 organ transplants were conducted in 2024 in the country. Ronald Lee Herrick was the first person to donate an organ, a kidney, to his brother Richard in 1954. World Organ Donation Day on August 13 has the ‘Answering the call’ theme that exhorts professionals to coordinate and collaborate more effectively with all stakeholders to carry out the virtuous cause that can save lakhs of lives.

Dr Ganapathi Bhat

(gbhat13@gmail.com)