A river basin is that boundary of land where if rainwater falls and runs off on the surface it will join the river and flow as water. A large river basin usually has a delta near the sea where it is difficult to determine basin boundaries but sometimes river basins may be on land as well when the river just flows into an inland lake.
Now every action in the river basin affects the flow of water into the river and the river is nothing but the flow of its waters and the bio-diversity it creates in the ebb and rise of its flows in the seasons.
Many rivers in India are rain fed but some are also spring fed and some snow fed. We are only now developing an understanding of springs, their recharge zones, their discharge and the impact they have on river flows.
Glaciers feed part of the flows of the Himalayan rivers. If the glaciers melt due to global warming our rivers can be dramatically affected. While forces of nature like rainfall and temperature affect rivers, they generally do so seasonally. One of the greatest mysteries in India has been the disappearance of the mighty river Sarasvati. Once this giant of a river flowed parallel to the Sindhu or Indus but then gradually disappeared. Was it due to climate change? A change in the monsoon rainfall? River capture or tectonic activity or a combination of all these? The research to determine it is still on.
By far the activity that affects rivers in the age of the Anthropocene is human activity. Agriculture levels lands, traps rainwater as soil moisture and does not allow it to flow into streams. Dams, big and small, are created to tap water for irrigation. The tanks of South India are dams across valleys holding back water for agriculture. Groundwater is exploited, drawn out from aquifers through shallow and deep wells, sprayed on the land, crops grown and this water evaporates, not reaching rivers as base flows. Large scale farming using high yielding varieties, monocultures such as eucalyptus and acacia all need and extract water from the ground, killing our rivers.
Silent killers
Large dams impede the flow of water and more specially silt. These kill rivers with a bang. The silent killers are the industrial and domestic effluents which we discharge mercilessly into our rivers, the plastic and other garbage that we dump into them, the sand that we extract for our construction, the forests we chop for our roads and railways, the logging we carry out, the coffee and tea we grow and the list is endless. The growth of our consumerist economy and GDP is inextricably linked to the death of our rivers.
If we have to reverse this killing and bring back life to our rivers we will need to understand the complex set of activities which destroy them, then go about reversing them while minimally affecting the removal of poverty and the economic growth needed.
We will need to create the right river basin institutions which track the fate of our rivers real time and inform people about the state of them. Only a permanent institution with the right multi-sectoral expertise and the ability to understand and model the impact of our actions in the basin that can harm rivers, can and will help us revive our rivers. Every river in India needs a river basin institution. We have the broad knowledge and expertise to model them. The question is can our governance of our rivers be set right? Do we have the patience to build the right institutional architecture for our rivers?
In the meanwhile, do plant trees on the banks of rivers. It cannot possibly do harm but remember for the long haul we need the right institutional architecture. In that is water and river wisdom.
zenrainman@gmail.com
