“It all began during a visit back home when I went to the emple in Dhom village (near Wai). It occurred to me that the river that I swum about freely n my childhood was complete y overrun by weeds. That was when I resolved to do somet hing about it,“ said architect Makarand Shende, who came o Pune nearly 30 years ago but visits Wai frequently .
The construction of two dams at Dhom in 1978 and mo re recently at Balkawadi has slightly altered the course of he river and it doesn’t flow with full vigour at Dhom any more. “A patch of about 1.5 km on the original course of the ri ver is now a mass of stagnant water with heavy siltation,“ Shende said.
The river resumes its cour se further downstream, but it s plagued with other pro blems such as open gutters that empty untreated sewage into the river at Wai or large amounts of plastic waste that finds its way into it from the various settlements on its course.
Keen to make a difference, Shende connected with about 40 others, who hail from Wai. Together with the locals they formed the organization `Samooh’ last year with an aim to revive the river between Dhom and Paachwad, a 25km stretch.
“We have certain shortterm and long-term goals. In the short-term we want to address problems such as dum ping of plastic waste at Dhom.Once we got started, it really didn’t take that much to make a difference,“ he said.
For instance, the group has managed to free nearly a third of the stretch from the weeds that had taken over the river basin at Dhom. It cost only about Rs 20,000 with a lot of the locals pitching in, he added.
“We have now managed to clear up a significant stretch.Earlier there was an unbearable stench near the riverside, but the situation has improved. We were also plagued with mosquito breeding in the dirty waters, but that too has been taken care of,“ said Mahadev Gaikwad, a resident of Dhom village.
The group, however, does not want to limit itself to private activities; they also want to act as a pressure group so that public money is spent well. For instance, when a project to construct a concrete pipeline was proposed at Ganapati ghat, they pressurized the authorities to ensure it was not merely a cosmetic operation.They are now focusing on a proposed Rs 30 crore project to ensure proper treatment of sewage generated at Wai. “We demand accountability from the authorities,“ Shende said.
Wai stretch amongst 300 most polluted
The stretch of river Krishna that flows through Wai and five other towns between Shindi and Kurundwad has been identified as amongst 302 most polluted river stretches in the country. Areport prepared by the Central Pollution Control Board identified the 200-km stretch as highly polluted, categorised as priority II because of its high biochemical oxygen demand (BOD). BOD refers to the amount of dissolved oxygen that would be required by aerobic organisms to break down the organic pollutants present in the water -a pollution indicator.
Source : TOI
