Lifelines no more

A little water, a great deal of filth, hundreds of dying fish, plastic bags, thermacol waste and frothy effluent. This is how our rivers flo...

A little water, a great deal of filth, hundreds of dying fish, plastic bags, thermacol waste and frothy effluent. This is how our rivers flow these days. In the Yamuna some days ago millions of fish floated to the surface. A couple of years ago, it was Gandhi8217;s Sabarmati where hundreds of dead fish lay in the water. Then there was the Betwa in Madhya Pradesh, which became a grave for hundreds of fish, shocking the villagers of Vidisha for whom it was the only source of drinking water.

A river that snuffs out life, a lifeline? Through history, the river has stood for purity and life. Ironically, this lifeline is now itself dying a slow death. In Karur village in the Kaveri delta, farmers don8217;t want river water anywhere near their fields. So polluted is the Noyyal 8212; a tributary of the Kaveri 8212; that villagers are sure the water will kill crops.

Wanton urbanisation and industrialisation have given the kiss of death to our rivers. Every morning, hundreds line up by the river bank, defecating in the waters. Meanwhile, dhobis queue up, uncaring that there8217;s little water to do the washing up. At holy sites like Varanasi, bodies are cremated and ashes immersed into the water. Half-burnt corpses are dumped into the river. Sewage, industrial and domestic, is discarded without being treated.

I happened to take a look at the Sabarmati a few days back. The vast river bed stretched from bank to bank, sans water. People have made the bed their home, and what remains of the water their kitchen sink. Industries continue to dump their poison in the water.

A dying river is a sad sight. It reminds you of the past. Of when civilisations came up by their sides. Cut to the present, and it8217;s more likely that civilisations would have been wiped out in their infancy.

Skin disease and dermatologists flourish in the towns situated by the rivers. In many small towns, dysentry and jaundice are on the rise. With urban aquifers filling up with dirty water and not being recharged due to falling river levels, the danger continues to grow. Animals fall ill after drinking the water and fish die.

It8217;s not as if the government isn8217;t taking note. It makes grandiose plans. Like the Ganga plan. Over Rs 1,700 crore were earmarked for this ambitious project but even today, domestic and industrial sewage is dumped into the holy river. In Kolkata and Kanpur, tanneries continue to discharge their toxic effluent into the river. And as the river flows by Patna, thousands of tonnes of industrial effluent is released into it. Meanwhile, the over 28,000 turtles that were released into the water 8212; in the hope that they would feed on the corpses 8212; have been poached. Toilets built on the banks remain unused, as does a dhobi ghat.

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But that8217;s all water under the bridge. The only fact that matters is that our lifelines need a new lease of life. And fast.