City

Dear CM, here’s how to clean up Bhima river valley

Students to provide suggestions to curb river pollution after Chief Minister expresses helplessness

Devidas Deshpande

Posted On Tuesday, August 07, 2012 at 09:02:14 AM

After gathering the support of warkaris and citizens to decontaminate the Ujani dam, organisations working to clean up the Bhima valley have turned to students.

A unique competition is on for the students living alongside the Bhima river valley, inviting suggestions to the Chief Minister for cleaning up the mess. The step was taken after the CM told activists to suggest measures themselves.

Pollution in the Bhima river

Ujani Jal Pradushan Kriti Samiti, a committee formed by activists and environmentalists in Pune and Solapur districts initiated a campaign in June 2011 to gather support for the cause from warkaris.

After collecting signatures from one lakh people, the committee submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, requesting him to take action against the growing pollution.

However, the activists were in for a shock when the CM expressed his helplessness over the matter. Anil Patil of the Maharashtra Vikas Kendra and president of the committee, said, “When we submitted the memorandum to the CM, he asked us to suggest a course of action.”

Spurred into action by the CM’s inability to come up with a solution, the committee is now organising a letter writing competition for students addressed to the CM and suggesting ways to reign in the pollution. “School students from Class VIII-X and junior college students can take part in this initiative.

They will give details of the pollution condition in their villages and towns in the letter. We want to include 10,000 students in the campaign, we already have 2,000 letters. Once all the letters have been gathered, our volunteers will collect them and deliver them to the CM,” said Patil.

Meanwhile, the committee members reminded Chavan that MPCB had prepared the Bhima River Action Plan, which still remains on paper.

The plan has been in the making since 2010 after constant complaints from the downstream villages of the Mula-Mutha that the untreated water from Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chincwad Municipal Corporation has polluted the river water putting a question mark on the hygiene of the drinking water supply to over 200 villages.

The plan, which is available on MPCB website, says that 450 MLD water is released in the rivers without any treatment and this pollutes the water of seven tributary rivers in Bhima valley.

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Dear CM, here’s how to clean up Bhima river valley

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