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City rivers on course to NYC

A team from Pune did a presentation on the condition of four rivers in the city at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. They collected samples from all the rivers for testing

Nitin Brahme

Posted On Saturday, May 09, 2009 at 03:04:52 AM

The Pune team consisting of both students and teachers collected water samples from the Mula, Mutha, Indrayani and Pawana rivers and tested them for oxygen and hydrogen levels. They then
presented their findings at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City (left). They have suggested the Green Herbs Effect for purification of the four rivers

Two Pune students and two teachers recently did a presentation on the condition of Pune rivers in the United States. Sunita Bhagwat, Pratibha Patke, Priyanka Mohite and Ketan Rikame have presented their findings in the US.

Bhagwat is a teacher and Mohite a student of Bal Shikhan Mandir Eng-lish Medium School Kothrud.

Patke is a teacher and Rikame is a student from Dnyan Probodhini Navnagar Vidyalaya in Nigdi. They presented their work on April 6, 2009 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Bhagwat said that this project has been via the International Education and Resource Network (IERN) and it is a One World For River project which was presented in the YouthCan Conference at the American Museum of Natural History.

IERN promotes active and responsible citizen-ship through international environmental science collaboration among science teachers and their students in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and the United States.

Bhagwat added that a key support for the joint research between teams in the four countries is the on-line interaction taking place between educators and their students through the Resource Network.

She added that in addition to gaining cross-cultural perspectives, educators and students exchange information on the rivers in their communities, including the factors that contribute to the quality and content of these rivers.

This interaction also includes community outreach and civic engagement activities as students learn how to responsibly advocate for environmental en-hancement.

“As part of the project, teams of participants in Bangladesh, Nepal and India are participating in river excursions with water analysis, community service projects, professional mentoring and networking, video conferences, and workshop presentations.

Students are encouraged to sample the water from local rivers in their community and share their findings with the wider community,” said Bhagwat.

She said that in this project Bal Shikshan Mandir, Dnyan Prabodhini Nigdi and Salumbre, Jaldindi a Non Governmental Organisation and Dr Sandip Joshi, Shirish Bodhankar participated.

Stevens Institute Of Technology from US taught them how to analyse the water. After that, the students collected water samples, tested and experimented on them.

Ketan Rikame told Pune Mirror that the project had started on December 2007 and water samples had collected from Mula, Mutha, Indrayani and Pawana rivers.

“The 10 samples from each river were collected in different climates,” he said. “They have tested river water for hydrogen(pH) and dissolved oxygen levels.

He added that they have suggested the Green Herbs Effect for river purification. The extract of custard apple, mango, eucalyptus and Indian basil purified the river water. And they presented their findings at the American Museum.

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