To Save a River by Niloufer Wadia

A Citizen Movement began in my otherwise laid‐back city of Pune. Without any discussion with stakeholders, the government began a hugely expensive project to create a concrete RiverFront beautification project. There’s just one problem; there’s almost no river.
Poor sewage treatment, unplanned, illegal construction, and factory effluent has made Pune’s Mula River into a filthy, almost non‐existent canal, except during a few monsoon months – when it floods and causes havoc thanks to encroachments. This shameless waste of taxpayer money would be better used to rejuvenate the river. The planned concretization will likely choke the river to death; the first attack has been a horrific plan to chop down over 6000 ancient trees!
Starting February 2023, I tried to chronicle this citizen activity, though I’ve sketched at river events before too.

My sketches cover river‐focused events and protests, regular weekend events where volunteers clean the river banks, water saplings and educate youth about nature and the problems we face thanks to an unhealthy river. I documented the river in its many moods and seasons ‐ through blazing summer when it was a bed of hyacinth, through the monsoon when the river finally flowed. Simultaneously, via my association with NGO Jeevitnadi, I did some work with a group of PhD students associated with Wageningen University, Netherlands; an exercise ‘Counter‐Mapping Rivers’.

They interact with locals impacted by industry, government and weather across Columbia, Argentina, Thailand, the Kaveri, Mula and Indrayani Rivers in India ‐ re‐drawing the river with stakeholder inputs, their needs, emotions and memories, going counter to standard cartography. As their local artist, apart from the Mula, I accompanied them on their counter‐mapping exercise to the small temple town of Dehu on the Indrayani River, which is also ear‐marked for RiverFront Development.

In October, activists’ petitions were rejected, the courts ruling that the River Front Development Plan will go ahead. A stretch of 44 kilometers (approx. 27 miles) at the cost of Rupees 5,500 crores (about 600 million USD) will have its riparian cover stripped, trees cut, and be sanitized into an artificial concrete embankment and promenade. Various Environmental NonProfits are coming together in a desperate bid to try to persuade the government to use their expertise and advice even as the project charges ahead.

While there is no hope of halting the RiverFront Development plan, it doesn’t detract from the wonderful work being done on the ground. Several citizens who assumed a pretty promenade would be great, are now educated on the terrible damage that embankments will do to the river, the environment and the city and more voices are being raised to ensure that sewage treatment plants
are installed first before any other work.

I continue to be inspired by the dedication of these amazing activists, often senior citizens, who are fighting selflessly for a future they themselves may not see bear fruit.