For the second time in four months, citizen groups of Pune took their concerns about the Riverfront Development Project (RFD) directly to the Minister of Jal Shakti CR Patil on June 17.
“We have sent him letters twice and I went and met him in Delhi,” said Medha Kulkarni, a BJP MP who has been raising her voice against the the processes being followed in the RFD, including riverbeds shrinking, dumping of debris and tree felling.
On Tuesday, members of the Pune River Revival, which works for the rights of the city’s rivers, visited the minister, who was visiting the Central Water and Power Research Station. “We have raised citizens’ grievances and concerns, such as increased flood risk, environmental degradation and river pollution due to the RFD project along with our suggestion for improvement. We are, further, bringing to your urgent attention a series of serious grievances raised by citizens and experts related to environment safety, citizen safety and civic issues arising from the RFD that is, currently, being implemented by the PMC and PCMC,” said the letters.
Sewage worries
The letter pointed out that “heavy pollution of the river will not be controlled just by increasing the number of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and downstream management”. This issue brought the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) programme to the fore, whose objective was to “improve the water quality in the Mula, Mutha and Mula-Mutha rivers by augmenting sewage collection systems and sewage treatment facilities in PMC area. It also includes taking other measures required for the pollution abatement and thereby improving the sanitation and living conditions of people who reside in Pune City and in the watershed of the downstream area”.
“We have been trying to draw their attention to the issue that just having a number of STPs, even if these get completed as per their commitments till 2026, is not going to reduce the pollution in the rivers because the multiple streams that are meeting the river are completely not addressed. The direct outfalls that are releasing the sewage will continue to do so. There is also a major component of groundwater contamination that has not been taken into consideration in the river rejuvenation,” said Shailaja Deshpande, one of the signatories of the letter. She added that groundwater contamination from microplastics and other emerging pollutants, such as pthalates, are not highlighted even by PCBs. “River rejuvenation means stopping pollution at source and not treating after it enters waterbodies,” said Deshpande.
Another signatory, Priyadarshini Karve, said, “We have been highlighting a point for quite some time that the whole project is based on the assumption that 100 per cent of sewage is going to be treated and there will only be clean water in the river channel. Several calculations, however, have shown that there is no way that, just by completing the STPs under JICA, all the sewage will be treated as the city has expanded and the amount of sewage has increased.”
According to the letter given to the minister, citizens feel the solution involves “upstream management and reducing pollution at the source”.
“Maintaining the natural filtration service by conserving riparian zones is of utmost necessity,” read the letter.
Encroachment, wildlife threats
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The letter points out that the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board sent notices to PMC, PCMC and the Irrigation Department, citing issues like interference with the natural flow of the river as well as encroachment. Point number 3 is that the project violated the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 and Aditya Paranjape, honourable wildlife warden, Pune District, had urged the PCMC Commissioner to halt the work and restore habitats. IISER Pune too raised concerns about the RFD, while the Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute had released findings about long-term safety concerns about the RFD.
In the letter, the citizens urged that PMC and PCMC suspend all work on the RFD, revisit the plan and try to balance urban development and environmental conservation, and restore riparian zones and natural habitats to check river pollution. “This is a collective demand for sustainable and ecologically sensitive urban development, which is safe, participatory and supports the local community. Pune’s rivers are not just waterbodies but also living ecosystems and cultural lifelines,” the letter said.
