Alarmed by the rampant destruction of water bodies in the city, green activists will prepare a 30-page draft on the state of rivers and nullahs and submit it to the Ministry of Environment and Forest, State Environment Ministry, Urban Development Ministry, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and other authorities
Alarmedu00a0by the rampant destruction of water bodies in the city, green activists will prepare a 30-page draft on the state of rivers and nullahs and submit it to the Ministry of Environment and Forest, State Environment Ministry, Urban Development Ministry, Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and other authorities.
Illegal construction
Environmentalists say water bodies and nullahs in the city have been destroyed by illegal constructions, encroachments and deviations by builders, and unplanned ideas of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC).
The activists, who have been campaigning against the destruction of Mula-Mutha river, Ram Nadi, and nullahs, are also considering approaching all wards, corporators and members of PMC Standing Committee and give a full presentation, demanding stringent action against the civic body and builder lobby, besides asking them to come up with a possible solution to prevent further damage to the water bodies.
"We will have to gather more committee members and agitate on a large scale after informing the ministry. We have to show them how the PMC is cheating the suppliers, users and the entire city," said Sarang Yadwadkar, an environmentalist, who has done a survey on the water bodies and has prepared a presentation on the 'Restoration of the rivers', which is based on scientific analysis.
No clean-up plan
The activists also plan to highlight how the activities, including cleaning of the river, sewage treatment, removal of encroachments, among others, have not been included in the corporation's Detailed Project Report on the rivers. Instead, they said, the PMC had proposed to build an exhibition ground, playgrounds, open-air auditorium, advertisement park, parking spaces, plazas, pedestrian malls, among others, on the river bed, which the experts said would only lead to reduction in the water-carrying capacity of the rivers and result in severe floods.
Restoration projects
The activists will ask for river restoration projects, including integrated river basin management, sewage treatment and garbage disposal system, removal of encroachments, minimising leakages in water supply and demarcation of river banks.
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