Watered down

Most states have recently started reviving their small rivers, but the progress remains far from satisfactory

- ZUMBISH

INDIA has been cleaning up its polluted rivers for many decades now. In the past three years alone, the country has spent over ₹4,000 crore on two flagship programmes, Namami Gange and the National River Conservation Plan, suggests government data. Still, 46 per cent of the 603 Indian rivers remain polluted, shows a report released by the Central Pollution Control Board in December 2022.

India's river cleanup drives have failed because the country has focused on major rivers alone, says Venkatesh Dutta, professor, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University, Lucknow. They were bound to fail because small rivers eventually merge with major rivers and pollute them, he adds.

Starting 2019, the focus has widened to include small rivers and tributaries in revival programmes. Besides the two flagship schemes, several other Central programmes such as Swachh Bharat Mission, Smart Cities Mission have components to arrest river pollution, says DP Mathuria, executive director, Technical, National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG). "Today, every state is also working for the revival of small rivers," says Nidhi Dwivedi, programme officer, NMCG. Experts like Dutta, though, maintain that the ground realities remain the same. Down To Earth (DTE) tracked the restoration drives of small rivers in four states to gauge the progress and the challenges.

UTTAR PRADESH