The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Towards conservation of rivers

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Wednesday, Jan 07, 2009
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Towards conservation of rivers

Staff Reporter

Action plan with short and medium-term activities prepared

BANGALORE: Rivers, they say, are the lifelines of any civilisation. A two-day workshop held over the weekend deliberated on the health, conservation and rejuvenation of the rivers.

That governments must allow continuous, sustained freshwater flows in all perennial rivers of India, whenever, a dam, diversion or hydropower project is planned, constructed or operated, was the unanimous demand and outcome of various sessions.

Inaugurating the sessions, L.C. Jain, former member of the Planning Commission of India, expressed pain and anguish on the state of rivers. “It is very disturbing that the acts of commissions and omissions of the authorities have ruthlessly, blindly, heartlessly led to destruction of almost every major river. Land, water and air cannot be subjects of commerce,” he said. He pointed out that even the recommendations of the official policies and committees on ensuring freshwater flows in the rivers remained unimplemented.

Brij Gopal of Jawaharlal Nehru University said: “There has been no assessment of the in-stream benefits of the rivers when taking decisions about off stream diversions.”

Rajendra Singh, activist and founder of Tarun Bharat Sangha, spoke of Arvari River Parliament, a democratic system set up in the villages of Rajasthan for governing a river basin. Participants demanded that such norms be formulated and implemented. An action plan with a number of short and medium-term activities was prepared.

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