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We will face increasing water stress with each year, says CSE
All our rivers are in dire straits – thanks to what our cities are doing to them, say experts at CSE's media briefing workshop on river pollution
For instance, according to latest CPCB estimates, Delhi and Agra together account for 90 per cent of the pollution in the Yamuna
Cities of the future, therefore, need to be built without using more water
June 14, 2007, New Delhi :
"There is something fundamentally wrong in the way we are managing our river cleaning programmes. We have already spent close to Rs 1,500 crore on cleaning the Yamuna – and the river has become dirtier. Our planners believe in spending money without understanding the connection between sewage and its disposal and river pollution," said Sunita Narain, director, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) here today.
She was speaking at a two-day media briefing workshop organised by CSE, titled 'The State of Our Rivers – workshop on rivers, river pollution and cleaning strategies'. The workshop brought together river pollution experts, civil society representatives and the national river cleaning bureaucracy to brief the media and demystify the key issues. About 30 journalists from leading media houses and publications from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Uttarakhand participated in the workshop.
Speaking at the workshop, Suresh Babu of CSE's River Pollution Unit said: "The Yamuna is an apt chronicler of the state of our rivers. Delhi, of course, is its biggest polluter – followed by Agra, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.
Pollution levels in the river have risen. BOD load has increased 2.5 times between 1980-2005. DO levels in the upper segments, considered pristine, are dipping – indicating an increase in organic pollution. By the time the river is midway through Delhi, the total coliform count is so high that it is difficult to count the zeroes."
Narain pointed out that 'water stress' is bound to grow in coming years, and that cities of the future must be built without using more water. Rivers and the way they are used, naturally, acquire critical dimensions in this context.
The current river-cleaning paradigm, which relies almost entirely on hardware-based solutions, also indulges in a mindless game of treatment and re-treatment. The challenge, said Narain, was not the treatment of waste, but how capable are our cities of reusing the treated waste.
The workshop was organised, in the words of CSE's Media Resource Centre, "to understand the condition of our rivers and the levels of pollution they face; examine existing river cleaning programmes and try to derive lessons from them; and discuss the alternate strategies that could give our rivers a new life – with a special focus on the Yamuna as a representative case".
CSE's Media Resource Centre has been organising briefing workshops for media people in various states on a regular basis. The Centre's effort has been to build capacity, provide information and stimulate informed debate and reportage on a wide variety of environment and development issues.
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