To protect the rivers of Baleswar district, a movement under the banner of Jal Satyagraha was held here on Friday which was jointly organised by the Lok Shakti Abhiyan and the NAPM(National Alliance for People’s Movement).
The activists under the programme went to ‘Triveni Ghat’, a confluence of three rivers, Budhabalanga, Sono and Gangahar, under Remuna block and vowed to protect the rivers.
Environmentalist Prafulla Samantra, researcher Dr Bratindi Jena and members of Balasore Civil Society, lawyer Manoj Nayak, Antrajami Pradhan, Arun Jena and several other social and environment activists were present.
Later, a meeting was held at the Station Club where the speakers said that due to pollution of rivers and their non-maintenance, several rivers have died in the State. They maintained that it was the prime duty of every concerned citizen to protect the natural water sources and bodies.
“The district administration is mooting a plan to divert excess river water for industrial use. We have urged the district administration to refrain from the move, but still infrastructure is being built to give river water to industries. As a consequence, the rivers would dry up. We would fight tooth and nail to save rivers,” said Civil Society secretary Manoj Nayak.