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

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
to regulate sand mining on river banks and beds, and other states like
Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra have policies
for the same. Despite these, destructive sand mining persists due to
insufficient institutional framework and enforcement mechanisms and
lack of knowledge of suitable alternatives for sand.
The responsibility of management of pollution of rivers lies with
the specific state pollution control boards. Pollution seems to happen in
spite of specific norms that exist for all point source pollution into the
river. The polluted stretches are already marked and noted by the CPCB.
There are specific standards mentioned for the Sewage Treatment Plants,
which was also revised recently in 2015 by CPCB. To address the pollution
and misuse of the riverbeds the following interventions need to be strictly
mandated:
• Identification, delineation, and notification of river land:
Revitalization of rivers and associated ecosystems can only
be possible if the area is demarcated. Along with this, clear
responsibilities need to be delineated for any institutional entity that
maintains or manages the river to function effectively. An attempt
was made to do this through a draft notification on River Regulation
Zones, which was not acceptable to some States. (We look at this in
more detail later in this chapter.)
• Data on environmental flows: In order to revitalize the life of the
rivers, a minimum environmental flow of water till the sea coast
must be mandated for every river under the Environment Protection
Act, 1986, enough to sustain the flora and fauna in the ecologically
sensitive zone along the river.
The actual estimation of environmental flows to be maintained
in rivers is not a simple process, because of the lack of understanding
of the relationships between river flows and various components
of river ecology. Environmental flows should not only encompass
the amounts of water needed, but also when and how this water
should be flowing in the river. 3 The assessment of environmental
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