The nation needs a paradigm shift where sewage is not treated as useless material but exploited to meet the nation’s energy need. The nation also needs to treat its rivers as living entities instead of water bodies only.
These were some of the views which emerged at the first day of the two-day national workshop organised jointly by IITans for Holy Ganga and Ganga Action Parivar (GAP) at Parmarth Niketan in Rishikesh to discuss means for ensuring the purity and uninterrupted flow of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers.
GAP founder Swami asaid, “The Kumbh Mela, attracting the largest gathering in the world, cannot become a green camp overnight but at least year by year we can implement more and more green initiatives. India can thrive only if the Ganga thrives and the nation will die if the Ganga dies."
IIT Kanpur professor and coordinator of Ganga River Basin Ecological Management Plan (GRBEMP)— executed by the consortium of seven IITs under the National Ganga River Basin Authority, Dr Vinod Tare said that the nation today needs a paradigm shift where the sewage and toilet waste is not considered useless but converted into a resource that can help the nation meet its increasing energy demands. “In this way our nation's greatest challenge can become our greatest strength," he said.
Former chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board, Paritosh Tyagi stressed on the need for a fresh approach which treats rivers not just as water bodies but as living entities that have their own rights to flow freely and unpolluted. “This is needed to prevent any type of pollution or obstruction to these sacred and complex living ecological entities," added Tyagi.
Former joint secretary of the Rajiv Gandhi Mission and CEO of Mokshda, RP Sharma said that the states and various stakeholders sharing the river bodies have to come together as one to address these challenges as the Centre can only be successful if each one owns up and takes their social responsibility to address a challenge which will soon threaten our very existence.
The workshop is to come up with a list of suggestions to protect Ganga and her tributaries like implementation of a comprehensive plan and policy to completely segregate river from sewage, maintenance of unobstructed free-flow in the river, establishment of National Ganga River Act protecting the river's rights as human rights, deeming certain parameters within the river bed as eco-sensitive zones to be developed as green belts with tree plantation, organic farming and with a concept of hut and river culture, reviving people's relationship with their natural surroundings. The suggestions will be be presented to the Prime Minister of India, the Union minister for Water Resources and the Minister of Environment and Forests apart from all other Central and State governing bodies concerned, urging them to act without delay.