Prime Minister said that many of the country’s rivers existed only on the map as they had no water in them.
What is the present condition?
Numerous small rivers and rivulets like Bharathapuzha and Ghaggar, which once flowed the year-round, have already dried up or have become seasonal streams.
Most states have no action plans in place aimed specifically at safeguarding the rivers from threatened disappearance.
Existing river management strategies are focused primarily on mitigating the pollution of their waters.
Main reason is rooted largely in the poor upkeep of their catchments which feed water into them.
Most of India’s major, minor and small rivers are either rainfed (read monsoon-fed) or snow-fed or both rain- and snow-fed.
The green cover of their catchments needs to be preserved to ensure sustained water inflows into them.
Even the riverbeds need to be kept free of encroachment.
But this is not the case.
The rivers originating from the Himalayas, too, are at risk because of rapid melting of glaciers and erosion of vegetation due to indiscriminate mining, tourism, construction and other human activities.
What is Narmada Conservation Action Plan?
PM has commended the Madhya Pradesh government’s Narmada Conservation Action Plan as the role model for river protection.
Some of the components of this plan are worthy of emulating elsewhere.
These include extensive planting of tree saplings in the river catchment and all along its embankments.
It aims at conversion of all the towns around the river into mini smart cities with zero discharge of any untreated effluent into the river.
What should be done?
Programmes to check the discharge of wastes into the rivers are part of practically all river rejuvenation projects, but none of them has worked.
e.g The Ganga action plan, which was originally launched way back in the 1980s failed to curb disposal of wastes into this river, this malpractice has continued unabated.
It cannot work without the participation and of the local people.
Programmes have to be need-based and planned with people’s involvement.
The government’s role should be confined largely to provision of funds, technological support and creation of necessary supportive infrastructure.
