Rally For Rivers

Last week Rains virtually halted Mumbai. It bought the grand city to its knees. It seems catastrophic as each year passes by with no solutions in place. I was shocked to hear that BMC has in its bank accounts nearly 65000 crore rupees making it singularly the worlds richest municipality. Yet when it comes to providing facilities and basic infrastructure to its citizens, there seems to be lethargy or corruption.The Mithi River in Mumbai seems to be the prime bone of contention. Seems that the excess water does not have a way to flush out into the ocean, so the flooding. Most likely the cause of floods in all the other places, so the linking of rivers becomes such an important topic of discussion

As I was whizzing past on my two wheeler to my work place, I noticed something new at every traffic intersection. A bunch of well dressed youngsters were standing with placards in their hands. Inscribed on each Placard were the words "Rally For Rivers". Without probing further I straight away knew what the campaign was all about. It was raining and the youngsters did not seem to mind the inclement weather at all. At one of the intersections I halted for the traffic to clear as i wished the campaigners good luck. I for one believed that the intentions for this all pervasive campaign seemed noble and for the good of the nation.

Now lets take a few statements or situations that each of us as citizens face in our daily lives. Closer to home in Chennai we are faced with severe drinking water problems. We keep praying each season for copious rainfall so that we do not have to put up with the water lenders.

Somewhere else in a distant Maharashtra village, there is a severe drought like situation, crops have failed. The poor farmer and his family are under duress and severe stress to pay off the loans that he has taken hoping that his land would yield a good fetch. His dreams have been dashed to the ground and he ends up killing himself, leaving  his family to fend for themselves and fight against poverty.

In parts of the country like Orissa, Assam, Gujarat, West Bengal and many other states, come monsoon season the rivers are in spate. One cyclone is enough to throw life out of gear and send people scurrying for new shelters while their existing dwellings have been washed away. Every year the Ganga, Bhramaputra,Mahandi,Godavari,Cauvery all great rivers of India seem to be in a very troublesome fury and this trend has sort of increased year on year.

Closer to the Tamil Nadu border, we are fighting a pitched battle with Karnataka for sharing of Cauvery waters. The Farmers in both the states claim that there is severe drought like situation in their respective states. There is substantial amount of truth in their statements because all they are fighting for is one water body which happens to be Cauvery.

We in Chennai are paying for drinking water, a natural resource. So let this problem be. The Politician is the biggest party to this nexus. So long as there is a water shortage, his water tanker is going to fill up his coffers. We as in the common man will be left looking up at the sky praying for more rains to happen. Will we allow this to continue? Are we satisfied by merely reading the newspaper,our mandated glass of coffee and by divine providence hope that problems will get solved on their own?

There is just one solution to all these problems. Allow Ganga to flow seamlessly. Right from Kashmir to Kanyakumari allow her to flow the natural way. Link up all the rivers, North to South, East to West . The next time there is excess water in the north it will flow to the south quite naturally, Cauvery will have its fair share of water, which can then be passed on to Tamil Nadu. The next time Mahanadi is in spate, allow the river to flow its natural way. The Farmer will have unlimited access to water even in Maharashtra .Solution is so very simple. Remove Political and man made barriers. Let parched lands become fertile, Allow the watery sub layers relieve themselves of excess water. Agreed that it is not going to be that easy, there will be resistance but when it comes to such a campaign which is largely in the interest of the common man, it is bound to take off in a spectacular fashion. We stand united in all cricket matches that India plays, why not unity when it comes to linking of rivers, that is the big question?

PS: I dont belong to the Isha foundation but felt that the cause is indeed praiseworthy and for the common good of our nation and so I have decided to throw my weight around it.