Water activists rally to save river
The 2nd of October, birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi, saw convergence of a small stream of humanity at Rajghat, in Delhi. These were the Yamuna Satyagrahis - water campaigners led by the Water Man of India, Rajendra Singh – who had gathered to voice their concern for a common cause, that of protection of the Yamuna river.
The Satyagrahis marked the day as one of dedication to Gandhiji and his values; and reiterated their resolve to continue with their struggle for the dying river. They are protesting the concretization of the Yamuna flood plains and are calling attention to the dangerous consequences that will be wrought upon people, if the construction were to take effect wholly. “The Yamuna floodplains should be used for what it has been used traditionally – agriculture, cattle-grazing and horticulture; and not to build malls, helipads, towering apartments or any games village,” said villager Satyagrahis from Shakarpur, Mandawali, Samaspur, Jagir, Patparganj, Bela State, Gamdi, Usmanpur and Chilla, all of whom are directly threatened by the so called ‘development’ on the Yamuna river. The floodplains of the Yamuna form the largest water recharge zones of Delhi and sustain ground water levels in the city. Once these floodplains are gone, there will be no recharge; and the city will be left with no water at all. The Satyagrahis were unanimous that the undergoing construction activities on the Yamuna must be halted; else it would set off a slew of chain reactions calamitous for the city and its people. As it is, the 22 km stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi is among the most threatened and polluted river stretches in the world. Among the Satyagrahis, was Ramjilal Chaubey, who had come all the way from Ghewar village of Alwar, Rajasthan, to take part in the Satyagraha. When asked for his opinion, he said that he was sad at the indifference of the people of Delhi towards the Yamuna, which once used to be the city’s lifeline. Chaubey shared his experience of how people in his region, Alwar, had got together to save and revive their rivers; and how they transformed dry, seasonal streams into perennial rivers that flow throughout the year. Villagers in Alwar today, he said, have developed a sense of collective ownership of their rivers and work hard to preserve them. They have come to understand the immense water-recharging potential of their river banks and do not allow any construction there. On listening to him one could not help but wonder how a simple sense of conservation is found in the village but is missing in a city which has educated people and experts. To mark the occasion, a Citizen's “Rajghat Declaration on Water Security and River Conservation” was released. Everybody present offered their support to the movement by signing on the declaration. |
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