TerraGreen Online Magazine.
In India, water pollution is a major environmental concern as many of the water bodies, including rivers, are polluted.
One of the major sources of river water pollution in India is untreated sewage.
There are many major river basins in India with natural waters that are being used for human and developmental activities.
This month, our cover story titled, ‘Troubled Waters: A Multi-Stakeholder Vision to Rejuvenate the Hindon’ highlights that there are over 100 drains that flow into Hindon River discharging partially treated effluents from sugar, paper, textile, and tannery industries as well as large inflows of untreated sewage from towns resulting in heavily polluted surface waters.
Over-extraction by farmers leads to crippling levels of groundwater in the region around the river, leading to formation of so-called ‘black zones’ with unsustainably declining aquifer water levels.
Our cover story further discusses that slowly but gradually people and governments are adopting various socio-ecological approaches focussing on river conservation and rejuvenation as they are beginning to realize the need to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation. A ‘Hindon Yatra’ exhibition and symposium series was initiated by the 2030 Water Resources Group (2030 WRG).
The aim was to endorse a common vision and demonstrate good practices to inspire and motivate the stakeholders from all sectors to prepare a basin-wide action plan with positive action towards collectively achieving a healthy river basin.
A change in mindset was initiated through the ‘Hindon Yatra’ to reorient people towards working as an organized group recognizing that every water polluter is also a water user who can contribute towards solving the water crisis.
It is important that the road construction and maintenance practices in the state need to be improved.