TOI River Dialogues: Revive small rivers, keep them clean to maintain purity of Ganga, say experts | Lucknow News

Lucknow: The revival of small rivers and ponds, including those which have vanished, can go a long way in keeping Ganga and other rivers pure and replenished.
The suggestion was mooted by the experts during a panel discussion on ‘Reviving Our Rivers: The Road to Sustainability and the Legacy of Maha Kumbh 2025’ during the TOI River Conclave 2025, held at a private hotel on Monday.
Additional director of the urban development department, Uttar Pradesh, Ajay Tripathi, said, “We need to teach people, especially those in rural India, not to pollute the Ganga by offering coconuts, flowers, and other items. We should have a sense of responsibility towards maintaining purity.”
Insisting on people’s participation, he said that the govt is running awareness drives in villages to prevent people from pouring anything into any big or small river to maintain its purity.
“The coming together of over 60 crore people in Maha Kumbh, 15,000 sanitation workers working round the clock, the setting up of mobile toilets in such large numbers, and the continuous functioning of all cleanliness equipment installed to maintain the purity of water, all collective efforts contributed to maintaining the purity of Ganga,” said Tripathi.
“India is the only country that treats ‘Neer’ (water), ‘Nari’ (women), and ‘Nadi’ (river) as Narayan (God). While for others, water is a business, a commodity, for us the river is a mother, a birth giver,” said environmentalist Rajendra Singh, also known as the ‘Water Man of India’.
He said that Kumbh was not only about taking a dip in holy water but it was also the Kumbh of intellectuals on the riverside, where brainstorming sessions were held to save our rivers and maintain their purity and serenity.
“By the next Kumbh, we must ensure that people get to realise that Kumbh is not only about taking a dip but also about giving a thought to how to save it,” he added.
“I feel people of Uttar Pradesh are lucky in many aspects when it comes to their association with Ganga. Firstly, the Ganga flows and covers 2,525 kilometres in India, of which 1,025 kilometres are in Uttar Pradesh, which is nearly 40% of the 75 districts. The river covers 27 districts in the state, and of the 24 crore people in the state, around 10 crore are directly and indirectly dependent on it,” said project director of the State Mission for Clean Ganga, Raj Shekhar.
“Secondly, it’s not just a source of water but a culture in itself, in which our economy, culture, tourism, and others are attached to it. Hence, it’s the responsibility of every person in the state to contribute their bit in saving the Ganga,” he said.
On what changes the Namami Gange project has brought about to the river, Shekhar said, “Firstly, not a single person reported getting inflicted with any disease after taking a dip in Maha Kumbh.”
“Also, from 650 Gangetic dolphins in Uttar Pradesh has increased to over 2,300,” he said, while adding, “Every two years, the Central Pollution Control Board checks and awards categories, and two river stretches in the state have improved its water quality.”
President of Bhartiya Nadi Parishad, Raman Kant, said, “Ganga is around 44% of the river basin of India. In this basin, small rivers are mostly Ganga. These small rivers are vanishing because the water table is going down.”
He said that the nature of a river is that it flows after both surface water and groundwater meet. In the rainy season, groundwater is fed by rivers, and after the rainy season, groundwater feeds small rivers. Due to the increase in population and extraction of groundwater, small rivers are unable to feed the Ganga.