Aravari, Ruparel, Sarsa, Bhagani and Jahajwali may not figure in our imagination or list of rivers of India but they are special. These are rivers or to be more precise rivulets near Alwar and Sariska in Rajasthan. Once dry, thanks to the efforts of the organisation Tarun Bharat Sangh and this year’s World Water Prize award winner Rajendra Singh and the many traditional water harvesting structures called ‘Johads’ which were put in place by the organisation and the people, the rivers are flowing again.
What does it mean for the rivers to flow again? This was an area where people migrated out for work to cities. Food and vegetables had to be imported. Poverty and malnutrition was rife. Now with the work on water harvesting, there is plenty of agriculture. Vegetables and flowers are shipped as far away as Delhi. A sort of reverse migration has happened with many villagers returning back since employment and livelihood is available.
For this work on regenerating a landscape through interventions on water, using traditional knowledge and working with the locals, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in water was awarded to Rajendra Singh in Stockholm.
Closer home to Bengaluru is the Nandi Hills range. Six rivers — Arkavathi, Chitravati, Palar, Pennar, Uttara Pinakini and Dakshina Pinakini — originate from the range. All the six rivers are in deep distress. Rampant sand mining, stone quarrying in the catchment, the removal of forests, conversion of land for agriculture, the planting of eucalyptus, the mining of groundwater and finally the lack of treatment of waste-water has killed the rivers. They no longer flow at all or if they do, they do so as nullahs or sewage channels. Can these six rivers be revived? Groups of interested and committed people are trying and they take heart from the Rajasthan and Tarun Bharat Sangh experience.
The matter is complicated by the presence of a large megalopolis close by and the urbanisation forces which buy up land far, far away.
Solutions
While ideally one would look for the creation of a river basin institution to understand, plan and manage land use and projects for regeneration of water, this seems miles away with a complete lack of imagination on the part of governance.
Citizens meanwhile can become part of the solution through smaller steps. Harvesting rainwater and recharging aquifers is an immediate step. Treating and recycling waste-water at household, apartment and layout levels is another. Engaging with the protection and rejuvenation of the local tanks and making sure that they are clean is the next step. Putting pressure on institutions to clean up their act and ensure that all domestic and industrial effluents are treated and only then released into the environment is another.
A combination of individual action, citizen group action and putting pressure on institutions of governance responsible is the only way to save our rivers. The sooner we do it the better. That would be water wisdom.
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