Stressing the need for community participation in preserving and conserving nature and natural resources, water conservation expert Rajendra Singh has said that efforts in this direction would yield the expected results only when they take shape of popular movements with the active participation of the masses.
He was speaking after inaugurating a seminar on “Water, Nature and Gandhian Path” organised by the Department of Information and Public Relations in association with the Water and Land Maintenance Institute (WALMI) at Alur Venkatrao Bhavan here on Monday.
Mr. Singh said that water-related issues are turning serious by the day. As much as 72 % of groundwater has gone dry and water in most of the rivers has been polluted to serious proportions. Adding to the woes is the commercialisation of water and other natural resources. The economic policies provide avenues for privatisation of natural resources which have been the common property of society for long. As a result, water business itself has grown to ₹ 50 lakh crore these days, he said.
Mr. Singh blamed the lethargic attitude of the people for these issues taking a serious turn in the recent times. He pointed out that the State has received the highest rainfall during last two monsoon seasons. But not a single drop of water could be conserved mainly because people were not bothered to do so. “We revere rivers as mother and offer prayers, but care little to check their pollution. Things may not change if there was no community participation in preserving and conserving the nature,” he added.
Mr. Singh has favoured communities maintaining ownership of natural resources and said that besides not allowing private firms to take away water from their localities, people should focus on preserving and conserving every drop of water by way of rainwater harvesting, rejuvenation of rivers, streams, ponds, tanks and other such natural sources.
The 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi should be an inspiration to achieve this goal. Gandhi was against exploitation of nature and had always advocated community ownership of natural resources for their cautious and judicious use. “Most of the modern day problems such as distress migration and uncontrolled urbanisation have cropped up as we have deviated from the Gandhian principles and the best way to address these issues would be realigning with Gandhian thoughts,” he said.
MLC Basavaraj Horatti, Deputy Commissioner M. Deepa, zilla panchayat chief executive officer B.C. Sateesh, Department of Information and Public Relations senior assistant director Manjunath Dollin and others also spoke.
