Volunteers rid river of 3,000 kg plastic

More than 500 volunteers, in a move to conserve Dahisar river, conducted a massive cleaning operation on Sunday morning at the river.

Working under the banner of River March, the cleaning drive not only managed to gather support of the locals to stop them from polluting the river but also removed 3,000 kg of plastic waste from the six-kilometre stretch. Guided by ‘Water Man’ Rajendra Singh, known to have rejuvenated more than four rivers in the state of Rajasthan, the movement has also managed to catch the attention of civic body, which now is coming up with strategies to rejuvenate the river.

River March consists of a group of city residents who have launched the movement to clean four major rivers in the city. While the group has managed to gather the support of thousands in their previous three events that focused on educating and spreading awareness, the fourth segment of the movement was focused on an action plan.

“The idea is to separate depollute the river. While Rajendra Singh is helping us, civic officials and public representatives with strategies to revive the river, we are urging the residents to stop throwing garbage and polluting the river,” said Bajarang Agarwal, one of the founding members of the movement.

Interestingly, people from different parts of the state came together to be a part of the initiative to clean the river. “People travelled from Nashik, Pune and New Bombay to take part in the drive. Some of them had planned the journeys overnight, only to be a part of the movement early in the morning. It was overwhelming,” said Mr Agarwal.

Ganesh Khare, one of the volunteers from River March, said that the major concern for the river is that the river is being polluted by five sources of contamination across its the six-kilometre bank.

“There are two dhobhi ghats at Dahisar and National Park, sewage lines of buildings and certain workshops run into the water body, tabelas of Daulat Nagar also dump their waste in the river and slum areas which have been dumping plastic and other waste into the water. The effort was to create awareness among the people who are responsible for the state of the river, cleaning the stretches which are polluted and make alternate arrangements for the polluters who are habituated with the arrangement,” said Mr Khare.

The cleaning drive lasted for three hours from 6.30 am to 9.30 am during which the volunteers mainly removed the plastic waste, garbage, and religious waste thrown by the residents into the river. The 12 km river, which originates from Tulsi Lake of SGNP and meets the Arabian Sea through Manori creek, has a total catchments area of 3,488 hectares. “There was a variety of waste in the river. Now at least people are refraining from throwing garbage into it and have started looking at it as a river and not a nullah,” said Mr Agarwal. The group managed to collect 3,000 kg of plastic from two of the spots, at Dhobhighat and near Rustumjee Building.

At the same time, a online petition launched to gather support has been marked to the chief minister, BMC commissioner, Prime Minister and Union environment minister to inform them about the increasing support of the residents for the cause. The group has planned to conduct one more drive before monsoon kicks in.