PROTECTING RIVERS

1. River as one entity

People and governments of each state through which the river pass consider it as their own property with no sence of the downstream effect. Unless rivers are treated as one entity with no boundaries the problem is not going to be solved. But in India, blissfully unaware of the concequencies, people keep on exploiting the rivers wishing the downstream user will eventually solve the problem. It is therefore the duty of government to direct different state governments to join hands.

2. A totally new sewer system

While our scientists are thinking about nuclear weapons and space shuttle, nobody seems to be bothered about the old, outdated sanitation system of Indian cities. There is absolutely no thinking about need to find environmentfriendly sewage system in our country. The present strategy is to invest in huge river clean up programmes like the Ganga Action Plan, the Yamuna Action Plan or the National River Action Plan to treat sewage. The purpose is to divert the sewage to a treatment plant with the same outdated technology, which was used 50 years ago. This contributes to a lot of burden to the government, as these treatment plants require a huge investment.