Wake Up To Plight Of Rivers

Another World River Day came and went, but there has not been even whimper from the government or any other organisation. Even a minuscule portion of the publicity that was given to the meeting of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had with Union Jal Shakti Minister was not there for the World River Day nor was any programme taken up to create awareness on the need to protect the rivers.

While the Telangana government which has been expressing concern over losing its control over river waters did not deem it fit to highlight the need to protect the rivers which have been constantly mistreated by humans, the media which is supposed to be a watchdog did not even wag its tail.

Human negligence has made the rivers face a massive challenge and their degradation threatens the very existence of human civilisations. Most of the rivers are high on pollution and have been calling for urgent action. Unfortunately, no one is talking in terms of saving them. Reports suggest that around 80% of India's water is severely polluted because of direct dumping of raw sewage, silt, garbage, and highly toxic industrial discharges into rivers and lakes. A stellar example of this is the pollution of the Ganga river due to growing urbanisation and industrialization along its banks.

In the two Telugu states, the plight of rivers Godavari and Krishna is no different. This has worsened the current national challenge of providing clean and safe drinking water to all citizens. This problem is not unique to India; it is estimated that by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population may face water shortages. Rivers have always been fresh and healthy source of water that provide us with ample resources such as energy, food, crops, drinking water and more. People in rural areas in particular used to wake up early, go to the river, take bath without using pollutants like soap etc and bring water in vessels. There were no RO plus UV with mineral guard technology water purifiers in houses. The water used to be pure and fresh. Now, if anyone tries to take a dip in river waters, he/she would get e-coli infection or skin problems. Still no one is bothered to talk about the importance of rivers or need to protect them. We hold seminars, lectures and produce tonnes of research papers on the subject but do nothing at the ground level.

With the advent of climate change and the increase in global warming, rivers hold great value in restoring the climate of the planet and balancing the ecosystem. If we continue to pollute the rivers, the ecosystem around them will collapse and, perhaps, we will lose one of the most important water units of the world. But the political executive does not seem to be bothered even a bit. One wonders why the bureaucracy does not create awareness among the political executive on such issues.

According to Mark Angelo, the founder and Chair of World Rivers Day, World Rivers Day is a timeous opportunity for millions and millions of people across the globe to come together and commemorate the importance of healthy thriving waterways. It's time to commit ourselves to proactively protect and preserve the Earth's waterways. Will the governments open their eyes at least now? 'Jago Re.'