Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
S
ource augmentation and efficient demand management
are the approaches proposed to revitalize rivers.
Afforestation and tree-based agriculture are proposed as
the method to augment the water source of a river. Drip
irrigation and other forms of micro-irrigation are proposed as a solution
to reduce agricultural water demand and as regulatory mechanisms to
improve domestic and industrial water quality and use. Iterating the
solution here again:
Afforestation of a minimum of 1 km-width on either side of
large rivers for their entire length is the solution proposed to revive
the flow in the rivers through augmentation of the source of water.
The fundamental reasons behind this solution lie in the role a forest
plays in closing the hydrological cycle, and its effect on groundwater
aquifers, soil and as a climate stabilizer.
We also propose to improve agricultural water-use efficiency by
change in the land use through agro-horti-forestry and appropriate
micro-irrigation technologies that substantially reduce the water
demand.
The core solution to stabilizing our rivers by creating and
maintaining a green cover for a width of a minimum of one kilometer
on either side of the river, should happen on a continuous stretch of
the river for few hundred kilometers, so as to see visible results of river
revitalization. This is possible only when governments lead an initiative
of this scale with massive people participation.
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