River March - An important initiative

On Sunday, 24th April 2016, citizen activists under the banner of River March and Swach Nadi Abhiyaan, organised a massive clean-up drive at the Dahisar River, which was headed by the ‘Waterman of India’, Mr. Rajendra Singh. Around 500 participants were involved, which included BMC workers/officials, activists and citizens of various occupations. Some of the volunteers were as young as seven years old and some were as aged as 85, and all belonged to different socio-economic classes. The organisers reported that over 3000kg of waste — including plastic bags, plastic fragments, glass bottles and other miscellaneous items — was collected from the riverbed. One of our interviewers, Mrs. Indira Bhende reminded herself of the scenic and beautiful river in 1947-48, where she loved to spend time staring at those river streams. Now, the river is little more than a sewer. However, Ms. Indira Bhende and other local residents have now stepped up their initiative to save the river and a patch of mangroves around it and transformed it into an area-wide citizens’ movement. The river now reeks and its course is choked with plastic and garbage. Ms. Indira Bhende, the leader of this movement, has shown its efforts to create awareness and are slowly showing results with more locals now willing to come forward and join the initiative. Is ‘River March’ an effective solution to help clean the river water and bring back the natural beauty that this river had before? Is awareness and organising regular clean-ups the only way in which citizens or students like us can contribute, or there are other ways also? It can be concluded that the present inhumane conditions of the river have diverse effects on its surroundings, environment, aquatic life and also human life. Therefore, it is important for us, Mumbaikars to behave as responsible citizens and conserve the beautiful natural habitat that nature has provided us. Help me in taking this initiative to a higher level so that our reserves are conserved and these can sustain for future generations. Remember, it is going to impact the lives of thousands and thousands of people living in the city and this change will contribute positively to the environment. This is a good initiative and will help bring about awareness in and around the city, and especially the locals who live nearby, the ones who are getting directly or indirectly affected. This should be taken as a wider movement. We all want a clean and free-flowing water that it once was, Don't we? Please help me gain more supporters by sharing it with your friends, relatives and as many people as we can reach out to.