India Rivers Week (2014) Highlights
India Rivers Week was held November 24-27, 2014 at the WWF-India campus in New Delhi. A first of its kind gathering of more than 100 river activists working to protect, conserve and rehabilitate India’s rivers, the four-day meet sought to tackle a wide array of issues regarding river health. These encompassed river pollution, floodplain encroachment, groundwater exploitation, and dams and hydroelectric power projects, among others.
Prior to the beginning of India Water Week, participants were asked to share their personal river story, which was published in a booklet that was shared with all attendees. Read my personal river story here.
The opening session had former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh as chief guest. Ramesh, a seasoned politician, spoke and then left without taking any questions. He took potshots at the incumbent government, raised objections to the interlinking of rivers scheme but give his backing to hydropower projects, calling it a “painful choice that we have to make”. He did admit that most of the hydropower sites lie in environmentally fragile and biodiversity rich areas, mostly in the upper reaches of Himalayan Rivers. Watch the clip from the opening session for his entire speech.
Ramaswamy Iyer, India’s foremost water administrator who also penned the first national water policy in 1987, shared the dais with Ramesh. Watch a video of Iyer’s lucid keynote address.
The four-day meet had no paper presentations; instead it had breakout groups, which discussed a plethora of river-related issues and reported back to all delegates at the end of the day in a plenary session. There was an evening of documentary film screenings and another evening was set aside to acknowledge the role of dedicated individuals, organizations, and movements. Download the India Rivers Week Proceedings.
On the final day, the Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti delivered a speech to all the delegates. Expectedly, there were many good sounding sentences strung together highlighting the importance of rivers in India. Yet she continued to give credence to the socially and ecologically destructive interlinking of rivers project. In a gathering that was unanimously against the project, she sensed opposition and wanted to rush back without taking questions on the pretense of getting back to Parliament. A few seconds into the 24th minute of this video, after the Minister had completed her speech, Manoj Misra – one of the conference organizers – managed to get a word in, which forced the Minister to backtrack somewhat. This earned the conference a little media coverage as well.
As an outcome to the Week, a Delhi Declaration: Let our rivers live has been prepared, and sent to the Union Minister for Water Resources, Uma Bharti, as well as the Prime Ministers office.
