Cities can lead Inter-state cooperation needed to clean up India’s polluted Rivers

There is no policy in India that promotes a holistic approach to conservation of our rivers. We depend on several institutions to safeguard our rivers, that are degrading fast with increased pollution load most of which comes from our cities.

Pollution, a great threat to our rivers, however, does not figure in the priority list of activities of our urban local bodies. It is believed that the pollution control boards are there to take care of our water resources against this menace. While the urban local bodies (ULBs) should be responsible for creating better sanitation infrastructure and treatment of pollutants before they reach our rivers, there is no clear road map available for that. Project completion deadlines keep extending and there are no river pollution abatement plans they should work to achieve. Our experience reveals that the inter-departmental coordination and convergence that is needed to generate pollution monitoring data and take effective measures to abate the same is completely missing. That’s for individual ULBs.

When it comes to rivers that flow across many urban bodies, the situation is more precarious. In case of rivers like the Ganges, which have attracted significant attention of the national government for decades, thousands of crores have been invested to clean up the pollutants and multi-city initiatives have been taken up for this. In case of most of our rivers, however, there is no such effort.

Not that Ganges have been freed from the dirt due to all this special attention, but at least some sort of multi-stakeholder actions have been initiated. For other inter-state rivers, we hardly find even any such effort.

Conflicts make things worse

Our rivers are discussed in the mainstream either when there is a heavy flood or when a conflict erupts between the riparian states over sharing of water. In case of a conflict that cannot be managed by negotiations, the case is dealt by the Interstate River Water Disputes Act (ISRWDA) of 1956 that is a major instrument to protect our rivers. However, that Act deals less about protection and more about distribution of the remaining water that flows down the river, and has been termed as an ineffective Act by many experts. From Cauvery to Mahanadi, as the conflicts over our rivers are growing due to scarcity of water and increased demand from multiple users, the efforts around resolving the conflict seem to be settling more and more on distribution of the remaining water rather than rejuvenation of the rivers, abatement of pollution and recharging of the basins and their watersheds.

The Mahanadi river water dispute, that is the latest one in the country to be tried by a Tribunal formed under the ISRWDA, can be discussed as a case in point.  We have been closely observing this conflict between Odisha and Chhattisgarh and are also trying to see that the states enter into a dialogue so that a cohesive atmosphere can be created and real challenges of the river and its primary dependent communities can be addressed. Odisha, the lower riparian state that has asked for the formation of the Tribunal is claiming to be a victim of the illegal obstruction of water by Chhattisgarh through dams and barrages constructed without taking its consent. The dispute, like other such interstate disputes, will now be tried to find out whether the upper state is obstructing water of the lower state’s share or not, and if yes, what would be an equitable  water distribution formula? Would this end the real woes of the river? Certainly not.

Make pollution the focus

In a television debate, a spokesperson of the ruling party in Odisha, claimed that obstruction of water by Chhattisgarh as well as industrial pollution in that state is polluting river Mahanadi in Odisha. This happens when conflicts get political and between the state governments and/or political parties. The victim state tries to attribute almost all problems faced by the river to the wrong acts of the upper riparian state, and forgets how it has itself treated the river and how much responsible it is for the current plight of the river?

In fact, Mahanadi is highly polluted both by industries and cities from both the states. Water quality monitoring reports between 2011 and 2015 of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB) has found serious pollution levels in several stretches of the Mahanadi in the state. The Board’s report finds the major pollutants to be coming from the urban areas.  Even though there are doubts about the authenticity of these reports in absence of any independent assessment, the fact remains that Mahanadi is highly polluted.

While the fight over sharing of water continues, both the states need to enter into a process of coordinated planning to curb pollution of the rivers and the ULBs should play a major role in this. The cities and towns along the river should come together and train themselves on two major Acts that can help them make initial steps towards river conservation. These are the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974 and the Environment (Protection) Act 1986.

If the cities join hands and enter into some sort of a cooperation mechanism, it could be a pioneering step even though no law of the land provides scope for that.

They should have a robust mechanism of real time dynamic data set generation and joint action plan to combat pollution. The river needs to be taken as one integrated unit for such a planning and most importantly such an action can also save the Bay of Bengal from plastic and other pollution loads from the cities. A timeline must be framed to end all discharges that go into Mahanadi, ban plastics and make their sanitation infrastructure completely compliant with pollution control norms.

Cities along Mahanadi must show the way. The river is witnessing the youngest of interstate disputes, and the states still have the opportunity to correct many wrongs done to the river. Pollution is one such problem that needs to be abated and a new approach to a ‘cooperation framework’ with help of the cities can be worked out. That, I am sure, would help many other rivers learn and stay pollution-free and healthy.

This article was originally published in The Urban Update