Indian cities keen to develop riverfronts but bogged down by polluted rivers

Untreated sewage, toxic chemicals, poor waste disposal among challenges to tackle

- Nirmala Ganapathy

NEW DELHI - As Indian cities roll out plans to build attractive riverfronts, the improvements on land are outpacing attempts to clean up the waters of the polluted rivers below them.

In the western state of Gujarat, a plan to extend the riverfront from the existing 11.25km in Ahmedabad city along the Sabarmati River to 38km includes the development of a 17.5km stretch by Singapore firm Surbana Jurong.

The urban planning and design specialist is creating the master-plan for the last phases of the development, covering 591ha of land. The first phase was completed in 2012 but other earlier phases are in different stages of development by other companies.

"When completed, it will be the longest riverfront project in the world, with a total length of over 38km," said Mr Abhishek Malhotra, Surbana Jurong's regional director for South Asia.

While the riverfront projects have given residents a much-needed public space, a key challenge for Ahmedabad and other cities with riverfront plans, however, is the extremely polluted rivers, which are clogged with sewage, toxic chemicals discharged by factories and rubbish from rapidly growing cities.

Along the 371km-long Sabarmati River, which flows from the northwestern state of Rajasthan into Gujarat, multiple cleaning operations have taken place but with limited success, said environmentalists.

In the latest initiative to clean up the river, some 60,000 residents of Ahmedabad have since May 15 picked up 945 tonnes of waste from the riverbed after water was drained to repair the Vasna Barrage, which controls the flow of water into the Sabarmati River near the riverfront.

This is among other initiatives, both short and long term, to clean up the river — from using trash skimmers to collect floating rubbish to tackling the problem of untreated sewage. However, the pollutants going into the river have continued to outpace clean-up efforts, noted environmentalists.