The ‘Save Mahanadi Festival’ was organised here on June 29, where more than 200 citizens of Sambalpur, including eminent citizens from all walks of life, participated and pledged to save the river from decaying and dying.
Narrating the objectives of the campaign, Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) convener Ranjan Panda, said, “This is a unique campaign that seeks to build a healthy relationship between the urban citizens and their rivers and other water bodies.” He continued, “Rivers are now facing acute health crisis owing to industrial and urban pollution.
Most importantly the urban people are gradually becoming insensitive and unconcerned about the plight of the rivers. Time has come to build a bridge between them and the natural resources, including rivers.”
Mahanadi, the lifeline of two States - Odisha and Chhattisgarh - needs special attention as urban and industrial growth depending on it is growing fast and vast, said Panda further urging people from all walks of life to join this campaign.
A factsheet that was prepared based on the citizen’s survey of Mahanadi pollution revealed that Mahanadi is a heavily polluted stretch from Hirakud to Sambalpur. Untreated polluted water gets drained into Mahanadi through at least 14 points between these two cities. These drains bring in about 40 Million litre of sewage into the river, besides about 100 Metric Tonne of solid waste that find way to Mahanadi in different ways. While about 40 per cent of the Sambalpur city defecates in open, at least 10,000 people defecate on the bank of the river itself. This is a daily health disaster as about 30,000 people take bath in the 50 odd ghats from Hirakud to Sambalpur.
“This is alarming and calls for urgent attention,” warned Panda. What is further alarming is that industrial wastes and effluents are also being drained into the river without any treatment. There is no regulation either for municipal wastes or industrial wastes and this is leading Mahanadi to death, he stated further.
At least 20 volunteers after forming ‘Sambalpur City Water Watch Group’ conducted the survey. They also documented the pollution through photographs and videography. Snehasis Das, a known documentary maker, has edited the videos into a film which was telecast before the Sambalpur public during the function. Then a response was sought and a citizen’s charter was prepared to take up future actions to save Mahanadi. The citizen’s charter talks about actions starting from homes to community and then district level where people have committed themselves to phase out from toxic plastics from their lives; work towards protection of surface water bodies and promoting green energy; to plant trees and protect natural forests within the cities; work towards proper garbage and sewage management etc and several other measures that will protect Mahanadi from dying.
Joining the function as Chief Guest former Minister Panchanan Kanungo urged the participants to keep up the voluntary spirit and work towards protection of rivers. He said it’s a good place to start a State level campaign, especially because Mahanadi in Odisha starts from here.
Prof Arttabandhu Mishra and Prof Durga Prasad Nayak, two other speakers on the occasion, stressed upon the need of joint action between scientists and common citizens to restore health of the decaying rivers of the State.
Prof Mishra said he was surprised that the Odisha Pollution Control Board is not sharing proper information on the Mahanadi’s pollution with people and urged for a transparent and reliable way of monitoring pollution of all rivers of the State.
Dr Nayak said Mahanadi has degraded from a pure river in about 1930 to a river unsuitable for even animals to take bath in 2010, the most of this being polluted during the last three two decades when industries and urban areas have grown alarmingly.
Panda informed for Mahanadi’s proper management, the campaign will also involve citizen’s groups in Chhatisgarh toward which initiatives have already been taken. Among others, Dilip Kumar Padhi, Prafulla Hota and Dr Bijoy Pradhan attended and spoke.