From 1 Sept, 2009 to 30 Sept, 2009, over a period of an entire month Yamuna Vigil Campaign was organized under Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan by Peace Institute in collaboration with Centre for Environment Education (MoEF) and i-dream.
A very common behaviour exhibited by Delhites is throwing of puja samagri and other household stuff into the river Yamuna through any of the bridges over the river. People consider this as an act of virtue in accordance with their religious sentiments. This contributes significantly to the pollution in the river which is anyways suffering significantly from the burden to city's industrial and domestic waste. The most polluted bridges are those at ITO, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Wazirabad and DND. Except DND, the other three bridges have barricades constructed by the PWD (MCD). However, people have made big holes in those barricades to facilitate throwing of stuff into the river.
Under the Yamuna Vigil Campaign, the Hazrat Nizamuddin bridge was chosen for the campaign being one of the most crowded and it was covered with our posters, banners informing people about the kind of damage being done to the river. The various organizers along with a number of volunteers and school students from several schools in Delhi used to stand daily covering the entire length on both sides of the bridge.
Several collections points were also set up along the bridge so as to encourage people not to throw the material into the river but deposit the same at those points. At the end of the day, the entire waste was segregated into plastic, paper and other organic material. All the organic material was sent for composting, the plastic was sent for recycling with CEE whereas for paper recycling, there was a tie-up with the Development Alternatives.
As a result of our month long campaign, PWD relented and they managed to send in their workers to repair the bridge. During the last day of the campaign, an experiment was conducted wherein none of our representatives were made to stand at the bridge or at any of the collection centres. It was heartening to see that 1 in every 4 Delhiite deposited their offering at the collection centre voluntarily. This clearly means that if given a choice, some people are certainly ready to contribute to not polluting the river.
However, at the same time it is also very sad to see the attitude of other people who consider throwing material into the river as a pious act. They fail to understand a very simple logic that the river Yamuna was given the godly status so that people will protect it and not make it dirty. But there are people who still think otherwise.
Though the campaign was just a small drop in the ocean, it certainly has made some impact into the minds of thousands of people passing the bridge daily. More so, it is also now clear that if we desire, we can actually take steps so as to protect our river. The learnings from the month long campaign would be compiled and send to Lt. Governor of Delhi and MCD and we certainly hope that in the times to come, steps would be taken to revive the river.
Most important thing, are we ready to shed our "Kya Farak Padta Hai" attitude. If yes, half of the problems would be solved automatically. As we say, Make your own Choice.
2010
I was just thinking that why don't people just point to the elephant in the room. And this elephant is the Industrial sector along the banks of river Yamuna. The biggest polluters of the yamuna are not the people who are throwing some religious offerings into it, but those who are throwing waste products of their overly materialistic lifestyle.
And just to satisfy the lust of the modern man all these industries are running. And the industries are the major cause of pollution. And nobody can beat them at this.
Let me repeat this again, Industries are the biggest source of pollution of Yamuna. And the same is acknowledge by the author in above article. But it seems, we've failed to find any answer for such a big monster. And that's why we are just doing something through which we can show that we are working for the cause, least bothered about wether we are really making any difference to Yamuna. Indeed, what has been mentioned above is commendable act. Lot of effort has been put. But this seems to be the case of "Drawing a bull's eye around our dart, rather than hitting the bull's eye."
So the question is where should we hit:
As Dr. Pachauri stated in one of his speeches "We have to bring about a lifestyle change." And what I can deduce from this is that we need to start thinking about "simple living and high thinking". I am convinced that the solution lies in making ourselves less of a consumerist. Lets stop encouraging people from pursuing their hedonistic fantasies. This will have direct impact on production/output of the industries. And lesser the output lesser will be the waste that is discharged in the Yamuna.
But then someone will say, we will end up making ppl unhappy.
Well, everyone in India knows that the spiritual culture of India has lot to offer in terms of happiness and fulfillment. And here indeed lies real happiness. The material acquisitions become stale after a point of time. But spiritual happiness keeps on increasing unlimitedly. So lets work towards the development of spiritual values in our people. This way they do not have to depend on industrial products for their happiness. And our people can be happy with little.
There are various examples in the present world which are behooving us to look upon them as a source of inspiration to start a "Simple living and high thinking" life. (for eg. working villages international working in Congo Republic on Gandhian principle, and is a huge success in their effort to present Simple living as an option).
And on the spiritual front, I think ppl can try their options in India from a variety of organisations. Or if you are confused, start with Bhagvad Gita as it is.
Dear Madhusudhan
I understand that our campaign was just a small drop in the ocean. The pollution in yamuna is a combination of both industial and domestic waste. And as you have correctly pointed out that the industrial waste is certainly the biggest contributor.
But as citizens of this city, all of us also need to see as to what we are doing in our own individual capacity to bring about a change in the river. The campaign was an attempt to make people realize that common people through their common acts can certainly protect the river by bringing down the level of pollution.
As for industries, a lot of work is going on in that direction as well. The development of Common Effluent Treatment Plants in Okhla is really a commnedable act. However, as long as corruption and Kya Farak Padta Hai attitude will prevail in our country, it is very difficult to ensure the success of such initiatives by the government. As I had pointed out in my previous article, the efficiency of most of these sewage treatment plants is very much questionable.
Also, our campaign also has had effects on the industry. We have given out a very strong message that if common people can contribute to save their lifeline, then even the industries should step up and invest so as to bring the level of pollution down in the river.
As for moving towards simple lifestyle, I see it as a very difficult progression given the state of development of our economy, As our country moves from being a developed country, such technologies, infrastructure and industries are bound to come up more often. However, what we can ensure is that we do not commit the same mistakes as committed by the Western World. As spider Man also says, With great powers comes even greater responsibilities. Only if we choose to use our powers responsibly and develop our economy in a green way, we can still avert all the environment hazards.
Rohit