Mattewara a game changer?

The need to clean up the rivers of Punjab is imperative to the very existence of the state. Revisiting the voice raised 15 years ago as Chairman WWF-India (Punjab), Gunbir Singh said, “We people have no right to call ourselves Punj-aabis if we cannot keep the remnant rivers of Punjab clean.”

This headlined statement had got an immediate audience with the then Chief Minister. Subsequently, there was little else but lip service. Plugging pollutant flows into rivers, municipal waste and industrial effluent is our pious duty. This responsibility must flow from every citizen up to the arms of governance and its regularity authorities.

With degraded and depleted aquifers, on which an empowered task force is imminent, Punjab is on the precipice of a disaster of its own making and thus needs ample and clean waters to provide for the thirst of its humanity and its food security. Ecological amnesia of successive governments with myopic visions has led to this situation wherein aquifers are going dry and groundwater is polluted.

Equally important is the need for conserving forest cover still surviving our ever-expanding footprint, and thus this cabinet decision is laudable. In fact an energized afforestation plan with native varieties across government and panchayat lands, institutional confines and private holdings shall go a long way in restoring Punjabi ecology.

(The writer is an Amritsar-based environmentalist and chairperson, World Wide Fund For Nature, Punjab)