Rivers - Question of Cities

Why cities must reconnect with their rivers, renew river-people relationship

Rivers are slowly being erased from people’s lives and imagination in cities. Seen as water sources, as dumping yards for waste, and their floodplains as developable land, they remain disconnected from the rhythms of urban life. Rivers are, can be,…

Vrishabhavathi: A river’s struggle in Bengaluru’s landscape

Our imagination of rivers often contrasts with what we see in our cities. They are integrated into urban systems as stormwater drains, overlaid with sewage lines, carry domestic waste, and in the case of Vrishabhavathi River, become an outlet for…

To rekindle Delhi’s relationship with the Yamuna, clean it up

The Yamuna has been Delhi’s lifeline for centuries but the city now has a severed, mostly utilitarian, relationship with it. Only two percent of the Yamuna flows through Delhi but the city is responsible for 76 percent of its pollution…

‘Rivers have emotions, like human beings. Their waters rise’

As the plan to develop the Mula-Mutha riverfront in Pune gathers momentum, many residents and environmental activists believe it’s a death knell for the river. Architect Sarang Yadwadkar, among those in the forefront resisting the project, thinks that Pune may…

Giving rivers room to move: Rethinking flood management for nature and people

The idea of allowing rivers to reclaim space on their floodplains is not new. There have been programmes such as the ‘Room for the River’ in the Netherlands since the mid-1990s and the ‘Making Space for Water’ strategy in England.…

Frequent flood hazards show the downside of urbanisation

The northern hill states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and the north-eastern state of Assam have been reeling under massive floods this monsoon. The large-scale destruction all around, and the loss of lives and property, exceeded what has come to…

The Sabarmati story: A river is more than a usable resource

The redeveloped, concretised, and glitzy Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad is a far cry from the meandering river which flows into the Arabian Sea. A natural river has been transformed into a tank of stagnant water – for commercial and recreational…

Pune’s Mula-Mutha sinks into ecological disaster

The ancient river, Mula-Mutha, has been battered by floods, encroachments, and rampant constructions causing massive environmental damage. Turned into a sewer and a dumping site over the years, the neglected river is heavily polluted and filthy. The plan to ‘develop’…

‘Why do we not see that our cities have come up around rivers?’

There is a severe stress on our rivers when we treat them like a resource which can be exploited instead of protecting them. Across cities in India, the story of rivers is similar -- heavily polluted with industrial and household…