NASHIK: The Godavari of Nashik, known as the Ganges of the South, is in a much better position than the Ganges of Kanpur, but it needs immediate attention. We refer to Ganga Godavari as a mother, so after proper treatment by Nashikites, people’s representatives, environmentalists and administration as a guardian, she will get better soon and flow freely, thus expressed international water expert Dr Rajendra Singh yesterday and urged the administration and the Smart City to plan to allow the river flow freely and not to block it.
In India, the river Ganga has been polluted since 1932, and the practice of discharging Nala water into it has started in Benaras. These practices were being done by the British government. Then there was a misguided practice of connecting nallas to rivers all over India. He said a team effort was needed to break it.
“The administration needs to take immediate measures to maintain the mythological and historical significance of Godavari. In order to make a city smart, its historical monuments should be preserved and proper water management should be done,” said Dr Singh further adding that a meeting was held with the state Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray two days ago. On the occasion, Singh said that the minister was confident that he would work in one year to differentiate between River and Sewage.
A special meeting was held at the Smart City office in Panchavati in the presence of Dr Rajendra Singh and environmentalists with the Smart City officials and municipal officials to plan for the future work to be done to free Godavari from pollution. Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Pawar, Chief Executive Officer of Smart City Sumant More, Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Khade, Superintendent of Engineer Shivkumar Vanjari, DCP Pournima Chowgule, Goda lovers Prajakta Baste, Dewang Jani, Rajesh Pandit and Nishikant Pagare were present.
No discharge of water into Godavari
In the presentation given by the municipal corporation, Smart City CEO More mentioned one of the issues related to the 2008 agreement with the Irrigation department and agreed to release the treated water back into the river. On this, Rajendra Singh suggested that the treated water should be used in other places, not discharged into the Godavari River in Nashik.
17 ponds to revive
There were a total of 17 live water streams along the historical Ganga-Godavari in Nashik, but due to continuous concretisation, these live springs closed. The issue was raised by Goda lover Dewang Jani, who has been fighting a court battle for the last seven years. The Municipal Commissioner immediately took notice of this and promised to revive all these ponds. Currently, five of the 17 ponds have been revived. But now that the Municipal Commissioner has given an order in this regard, all these ponds will get revived soon, he exuded confidence.
