Greetings friends
Today I shall be talking about our rivers
and 'Rally for Rivers' a new initiative that has been taken to save rivers
You guys must be knowing about the state in which rivers are these days
Some people claim them to be 'holy' and take a dip in them
But I would prefer staying away from such rivers
They have got polluted to such an extent that they can't be called anything less than a sewer
They have started taking shape of a dirty drainage
The waste of the cities from where they flow
gets dumped straightaway in these rivers
and to add to this is the industrial pollution that gets dumped in them
And friends these days due to Global warming
and other reasons like deforestation, sand-mining
the water that should be retained in the rivers is also running out
our rivers have started drying out
It has been predicted that by 2030, only 50% of the water will be available
it would be sufficient for the survival of the population of India
So now a person named 'Jaggi Vasudev' has initiated 'Rally for Rivers'
the purpose of it is to create awareness about rivers to as many people as possible
to make people aware about the dismal state of rivers
and to suggest the government to change some policies to improve them
so that the conditions improve
For this he is seeking support of as many people as possible
he has asked people to give a missed call on a number provided by him
this missed call will act as a vote
so later they can show it to the government
and say that these many people had given a missed call and they support our initiative
which includes our suggestions for the changes in the policies
so the changes this gentleman is suggesting are
to plant trees for a distance of 1 km alongside the rivers, to give a forest cover
if it's a government land then to develop forest covers
and if it's a farmland then to plant fruit trees on the land
Jaggi Vasudev says that this policy change of planting trees is a very basic idea
it's a very small and basic step to make people understand
he plans to make a long policy document in the month of October
it will be a team of about 15 people from environmentalists to ecologists
who would suggest him the changes required
and they will forward this 3-4 pages of suggestive document to the government
it will also mention action on various other issues
many people are supporting this cause of rally for rivers
politicians from different political parties, celebrities and people from different walks of life
many controversies have propped up now because Mr. Jaggi is travelling from Kanyakumari to the Himalayas by a line of cars
as these cars will emit CO2
and its also being said that some corporates are funding this initiative
I feel that these are very petty issues, especially the one of the cars
because if we start pointing out such small issues then we won't be able to do anything
and talking about the fundings coming from the corporate companies
as far as these corporates don't have their selfish motives
and they are taking this up as a social responsibility then there's no harm in it
so I would avoid talking about the controversies
as i feel this is a very big opportunity
so many people have gathered together and this a very good opportunity to finally clean the rivers
I would like to give this campaign a benefit of doubt
everyone who is running this want good for the country
after understanding all this, I would now like to give some solutions
on how the rivers can be cleaned and what should the government do in this
And what Mr. Jaggi's team should incorporate in their document and what the citizens should do
The biggest suggestion which their policy document states is to plant trees upto 1km alongside the rivers
according to me, just stating to plant trees along the riverbed should not seal the deal
they must state that only local plants should be planted throughout this area
the trees that are locally found in India
the ones that match the biodiversity of India, the ones that have evolved in India
for eg. Banyan, Jamun, Neem, Peepal
all these are the local plants and trees of India
it's very important to follow this
or else if they ask to plant any random tree
and the government workers who are allotted for this particular task
plant a great deal of random trees just for the sake of completing the target
then it will be way too harmful
especially if the plants they are planting are 'Invasive plant species
these are the plants or trees that are imported from foreign countries
and they transform into a pest here
Friends you won't believe every year
India incurs a loss of $91 billion
because of this so called invasive plant species
these plants grow very easily
and they destroy the local diversity completely
crops gets destroyed, farmers get severely affected
and the existing local trees also gets disturbed and eventually destroyed
The country incurs a lot of loss, so its very important to grow only local species
so trees here become a way to conserve water
second way to conserve water is by using traditional methods
you guys may not be aware of the fact
that about 400-500 years ago
and even thousand of years ago
Indus Valley Civilization had better irrigation techniques than what we have now
better sewage system than what we have now
we can learn and adopt a lot from their water conservation techniques
here are some examples which I'd like to show y'all
This is a Jhalara, its used in Rajasthan
they are wells in rectangular shape with stairs constructed on them
this is called Bawari
this is Ramtek
these are some of the many ways in which water used to be collected in olden times
these are very simple, economic and will be effective too if used today
because India is a vast country and its divided into many states
I feel each state should choose and plant their local trees
and must choose their local, traditional water harvesting techniques
they should select a handful and should focus only on it
this will enable them to focus on the local variety and a policy could be formulated
the third thing is Sandmining, my friends
sandmining means digging for sand near riverbeds and using them later for construction
its legal in some places but is illegal in most of the places
but these days it has become a mafia business
the total predicted business of it each year is $120 billion
this is a major factor which leads to the drying up of rivers
there's a high possibility of flooding because of sand mining
government has taken some efforts to overcome this
like in the year 2015, union government had issued some 'guidelines for sandmining'
but the decision didn't make any difference
some states are planning to ban sandmining
but it leads to nothing because most of the times politicians are involved in sandmining
so there needs to be a major change in the policy
I personally feel, government should totally ban any kind of sand mining
when there will be nothing legal or illegal left
so any kind of sand mining could be raided and caught
now some people will argue that if sand mining is illegal, then how will one get construction material
There's a thing called 'manufactured sand', this has always been available but not being used
construction companies don't use it because they have to pay for it
mining in the river yields free sand, whereas manufactured sand asks to be purchased
so the solution exists but no one is willing to spend any money on it
there should be a complete ban on sand mining
so friends from the above points, flooding and drying of the rivers can be prevented
but the river will still flow dirty if only these 3 points are taken into implemented
the most important point here is that the waste water and sewage water that gets dumped in our rivers
lets take the example of Ganga, the one whom we address as the 'holy' river
it flows through and along 222 cities
and in each of those cities the amount of garbage which bundles up
the amount of waste which the residents of these cities generate
80% of it gets dumped in the river
If you stay in any such city, a city near which any river flows
the chances of the waste that you accumulate and throw it in a dustbin
all these efforts are in vain
because about 80% of it will be dumped in the river, as it is
so friends here there are two things
the government is not solely responsible
both government and the citizens are responsible for it, equally
because the government is not
wholly responsible for generating all the waste
we too are accountable for it
so we will have to think as an individual, of the waste that we generate
and how to minimise it
and along with reducing it how to make most of it biodegradable at the same time
like minimise the use of plastic
this is a vast topic and I shall make a separate video on this separately, later.
but if i were to explain it in short
basically
the first thing is to segregate biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste
which means to separate wet and dry waste
should avoid the practise of throwing biodegradable waste in the dustbin
as it is it's going to get dumped in the river later
we should collect it at our homes and should make a compost pit out of it
you can search on google and see it for yourself how simple it is to convert it into manure
and you can use it as a manure for the trees and plants around you
just by following this there can be about 50% reduction in the waste, that we accumulate
if each and every person living in the city starts following this then there will be an overall reduction of waste by 50%
and the waste that flows in the river will also be reduced by 50%
then the next stage for us should be to avoid using plastic products
and to maximise the use of local products and the traditional packaging that we used to use should be brought back
for instance when you eat chaat-papdi, we now get it in plastic plates
few years ago it used to be served in leaves like this
so lets go back to these because they are biodegradable
easy to clean and they aren't hazardous to the environment
we will have to go back to use such products
now the second blame goes to the government, it has failed to provide good sewage and drainage system in cities
so that all the waste can accumulate in one place
they failed to provide us with sewage treatment plant where we could treat sewage
we either dump them in our land fills or in our rivers
to improve this, Ganga Action Plan 1 had taken off, when Rajiv Gandhi was in power
the plan was to construct many sewage treatment plants
but after few years they failed to function
one may blame corruption or the inefficiency of the government
and after that all the governments who came to power promised that they will clean the Ganges
you may notice in all Ganga action plans, one thing was common, it was to construct as many sewage treatment plants
to construct more waste treatment plants
there were few constructions, but they were with respect to the old populace
our population increased drastically, this lead to more generation of waste, so it couldn't manage so much load
in today's time, all the existing treatment plants are highly insufficient
around 30% of the sewage which generates in the city gets treated in sewage treatment plant
it is nothing but natural that the government will have to focus more on this
as to how to improve it
how to build more sewage plants and maintain them so that all the waste gets treated
I am hopeful that when the policy document gets submitted by the Rally for rivers organisation, all these points will be included.
and concrete policies will be enforced on the basis of it
and friends here all of you must take charge
action taken by the government alone won't be sufficient
as I had mentioned earlier, we are responsible for the generation of tonnes of waste
so in order to reduce it, we would have to change ourselves and do something
There are also people who use rivers for rituals
sometimes they offer it flowers, sometimes Ganesha idols
this usually happens in Varanasi and Maharashtra, all this needs to be stopped
flowers are biodegradable and offering a few is okay but loading the rivers with trucks of flowers is wrong
these customs and rituals were okay in the past when there wasn't much population
offering a couple of flowers was fine
but these days the population is in abundance
so many idols are immersed at the same time
have a look at this video
we will have to stop doing this completely
this is not how things work
because then rivers will be such filthy gutters
and the people who disagree with me, can stay content by taking a dip in such filthy rivers
what can I say..
but the ones who agree with me, they should support rally for rivers, that's what I feel
lets see what change they bring about
this is the first time where a mass movement is happening for the support of the rivers
so we all should support the cause
I would urge you all to give a missed call on this number and show your support
I hope that you guys must have acquired a lot of information from this video
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Friends we shall meet again in the next video. Thank you :)
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