Preserve the ecological integrity of rivers

The India Rivers Forum is a vibrant and active network of organisations and individuals that are committed to the conservation and safeguarding of our rivers against needless and detrimental development. Every year, India Rivers Forum organises the India Rivers Week to raise awareness regarding these issues. This year, India Rivers Week, organised in Pune, brought together more than 100 practitioners, including representatives from academia and civil society movements, to discuss riverfront development unfolding in different parts of the country.

Riverfront development has been promoted in a big way by the central and state governments across the country in the name of rejuvenating and beautifying the rivers. Some of the prominent sites for riverfront development projects across India are Varanasi, Bhagalpur, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Hyderabad, Jammu, Kota, Bilaspur, Patna, Guwahati, and Pune.

Though riverfront development aims to revitalise the riverfront areas, in reality, these projects are less about river restoration and more about the encroachment of floodplains and riverbeds characterised by heavily concretised embankments and other structures like barrages, as well as reclaiming floodplains and riverbeds for real estate development.

The Pune riverfront development project follows the same trajectory. As part of the programme, the participants visited a few sites in the Mula-Mutha system where riverfront development has been taken up and saw for themselves what is being developed under the name of river rejuvenation.

The river, with its banks, meanders, and riparian zones, performs various ecological and geophysical functions and provides social and economic services. It provides diverse habitat for numerous aquatic, semi-aquatic, and terrestrial flora and fauna. Converting it into a concrete channel with a homogenous depth is against the very spirit of ecological integrity and restoration. It is well known from global scientific knowledge and experience that a river can only retain its ecological functions and services when its natural and heterogenous habitats are maintained and supported.

This public statement, which has been unanimously agreed upon by the participants of India River Week 2023, brings out the fact that riverfront development in its present form will raise flood levels steeply, destroy the ecological integrity of the rivers, and jeopardize the communities whose lives and livelihoods are dependent on rivers. It calls for an immediate halt of the ongoing works and activities under the project and constitutes a multi-disciplinary independent expert group (including representation from civil society organisations) to study all aspects of the project in a participatory and consultative manner and come up with an alternative design that is ecologically and socially just.

We have serious concerns regarding claims made by the project, as stated below:

Provide Flood Control: Topographically, the Pune metropolitan region is prone to heavy flood risk. With more than 20% of the floodplains already encroached, breaching both the 25-year and 100-year flood lines across the city, the construction of embankments and barrages on the Prohibitive Zone under the riverfront development project would further constrict the rivers, reducing their carrying capacity and leading to an increase in the flood risk. There is no room for the rivers to absorb floods under this project, especially considering that the Pune region is going to experience an increase in rainfall due to climate change and existing encroachments.

Make Rivers Pollution-Free: The project for providing pollution-free rivers given to the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for the construction of additional sewage treatment plants has been lingering for many years. Not a single sewage treatment plant has been constructed to date. Moreover, the designed capacities of the sewage treatment plants do not take into account the increased domestic effluent load due to the increase in population over the last decade. There is no credible governance in place to ensure the proper functioning of the existing sewage treatment plant capacity.

Retain and Replenish Water: Water will be retained behind the barrages for recreational purposes. In reality, the rivers will lose their filtration abilities, and they will become more stagnant and polluted. The retention of water in the barrages will reduce flows and affect downstream ecosystems and water users. This may increase water conflicts in the future. It is also at the cost of a large loss of trees and biodiversity.

The current Pune riverfront development project lacks a holistic approach that takes into account the long-term effects of development on the riverine ecology. We are for genuine rejuvenation of the rivers, but not the present project or the manner in which it is being implemented presently. The Pune group working on the Mula-Mutha rivers has shown that an alternative, nature-based way for the rejuvenation of the rivers is possible. We sincerely urge the Pune Municipal Corporation to seriously consider this alternative approach.

Our key demands are:

1. Stop work on Pune riverfront development and initiate an independent assessment of alternatives.
2. No cutting of the trees in any riparian zone for any infrastructure project.
3. Retention of native flora and habitats, including large and older riparian trees, and not removing them for riverfront development should become policy and part of guidelines for ecological restoration of urban rivers.
4. Natural riparian zones should not be disturbed. Wetlands must be protected.
5. Aquifers and natural springs must be protected.
6. The ban on dumping construction debris and solid waste in the rivers and along the banks must be enforced more stringently.
7. A social audit of the existing water treatment plants regarding their functioning and efficiency.
8. Rivers should be given more room. A cumulative impact assessment study should be done to understand the overall effect of the runoff during extreme storm events.
9. The cross section of the riverbed should not be allowed to alter. This should be monitored and put in the public domain annually.
10. There should be a consideration of equity and social justice in water availability and distribution—water for every living being from source regions to downstream.

Statement adopted unanimously by the participants of India Rivers Week 2023 on behalf of India Rivers Forum

K. J. Joy (9766247320), Shripad Dharmadhikary (9552526472), Siddharth Agarwal (8100170707), Neha Bhadbhade (9158735383)