As COP28, the global meet on climate change, gets underway in Dubai on November 30, a different meeting in Pune, India Rivers Week, is trying to draw attention to the River Front Development.
The India Rivers Forum, a network of organisations and individuals who work towards conservation and safeguarding the country’s rivers and organised the India Rivers Week, is calling for a suspension of the River Front Development (RFD) project and a proper review with the participation of everybody.
In a statement released on Monday, the India Rivers Forum, the organisers of the event, said, “RFDs have been promoted in a big way by the central and state governments across the country in the name of rejuvenating and beautifying the rivers. Some of the prominent sites for RFD projects across India are Varanasi, Bhagalpur, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Hyderabad, Jammu, Kota, Bilaspur, Patna, Guwahati and Pune. Though RFD aims to revitalise the riverfront areas, in reality these projects are less about river restoration and more about the encroachment of floodplains and riverbeds characterised by heavily concretised embankments and other structures like barrages and also reclaiming floodplains and riverbeds for real estate development. The Pune RFD project follows the same trajectory”.
Speaking to The Indian Express, KJ Joy of India Rivers Forum said, “When we went to visit a few sites in the Mula-Mutha system, where the River Front Development has been taken up, we saw truckloads of cement, rubble and other material on the side of the river bank. If we use this much concrete, it will be against the spirit of climate mitigation.”
Members of the India Rivers Forum have raised a number of “serious concerns”. Among these, they have pointed out in the statement that topographically the Pune Metropolitan region is prone to heavy flood risk.
“With more than 20 per cent of the floodplains already encroached, breaching both the 25-year and 100-year flood lines across the city, construction of embankments and barrages on the prohibitive zone under the RFD project would further constrict the rivers, reducing their carrying capacity leading to an increase in the flood risk. There is no room for the rivers to absorb floods under this project, especially considering that the Pune region is going to experience an increase in rainfall due to climate change and existing encroachments”.
“We are not saying that the river should be left as it is. The river, seriously, needs rejuvenation but the way it is being done is killing the river. The PMC’s vision appears to be to convert the river into stagnant pools of water and concretise banks and artificial vegetation. That is not the vision that we think a river should be. We have an alternative vision of a more nature-based rejuvenation programme for the rivers,” Shripad Dharmadhikary told The Indian Express.
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