8 Days, 8 Ghats: Yamuna Bank Cleaning Drive

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

What was perhaps a never before seen sight in the history of Yamuna River cleanup actions in Delhi, lakhs of people turned up in the vicinity of Purana Qila to accept ownership of the dying river and take an action oriented pledge to clean Delhi’s lifeline. An awakening call by the spiritual leader H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar in the presence of the Delhi Chief Secretary, Mayor and scores of renowned personalities from different fields did what is otherwise considered impossible by many. Smt. Kiran Walia also graced the occasion. “Guruji is known for making the impossible possible”, explained a devout from among the crowd.

Meri Dilli Meri Yamuna: the call to action began with a Shankh Naad by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar–who was joined by thousands in the crowd–exhibiting the unity and oneness among the masses for the cause, beyond caste, region, religion or even the red tapism! Yamuna then came alive on the very stage, with the amazing play performance by a group of differently abled citizens and directed by Shri Salauddin Pasha. The daughter of Surya – the Sun God, and the sister of Yama, the God of Death, is shown to get so fed up with the pollution that she decided to return to her father. And only after being illustratively convinced by Her brother and by the Sun God, on how Delhi will die without her, and after getting a call by the dying Delhiites, does she agree to return.

This was preceded by a beautiful song on Yamuna by Chitra Roy, which underlined the importance of the river to all of us. H.H. Sri Sri was present throughout and kept encouraging the people for taking action now and becoming adamant for ensuring Yamunaji is once again clean and full of life. The cheers from the massive crowd was enough for any environmentalist in the city to become full of energy and reassurance.

The Cleanup campaign of the banks of Yamuna will begin from today, and would be a 8 days programme which will be adequately followed up from time to time. As called by the Guruji, the masses have also been asked to keep themselves aware of every government policy for cleaning the river water, help the Government wherever required and also keep a check on the spending of public money.

ALL DELHIITES ARE INVITED TO JOIN THE RIVER CLEANUP CAMPAIGN AS BELOW:

Yamuna Banks clean up drive

To participate in the 8 Days, 8 Ghats Cleaning Drive from 17 to 24th March 2010, please contact the respective volunteers at the following numbers:

March 18: Wazirabad: 9810056143
March 19: Nizamuddin: 9910197070
March 20: Kalindi Kunj: 9810027193
March 21: ITO: 9810019055
March 22: Okhla Bird Sanctuary: 9819207211
March 23: Yamuna Bazaar: 9811594494
March 24: Okhla Dhobi Ghat: 9650930109

Previously on Delhi Greens:

Aastha Kukreti

Aastha Kukreti holds a Master’s degree in Environment Management and her areas of expertise range from waste management, pollution ecology, green audits, ecofeminism, environmental equity and social justice.

6 thoughts on “8 Days, 8 Ghats: Yamuna Bank Cleaning Drive

  1. Pingback: Blog action day: clean water | BreatheDreamGo | India travel yoga
  2. The campaign has brought people together to clean the banks of the river, and also remove muck, but its not people alone who can clean the river, massive waste water treatment facilities are required to be built…and also ensured that they work.

    The River is cleaner than ever before today..by the natural cleaning mechanism of the monsoon which renews it this time around, every year!

  3. This Initiative is required to aware the people of there responsibility. MEDIA & GOVT is busy in there own AGENDA & people are busy in there own. So lets unite for some positive cause & work for something better.

  4. Thank you for your feedback. That is the next phase of work with the Meri Dilli Meri Yamuna campaign. Since the maximum contribution of pollution is from Delhi city itself, the first attempt is to lobby with the government (for we cannot install these on a big scale as required, only be after the Govt. ensuring it is done), for putting a sewage treatment plant at the mouth of each of these drains that outfall into the river in the 22 km stretch in Delhi.

    What is achieved by the above mentioned initiative is a reconnection of the people to the river, and also a message to the the Govt. and the media on the seriousness of the matter.

  5. I wonder what you would achieve by carrying out such initiatives. Why don’t you guys provide waste water treatment plants to each town which drains untreated sewage in the river? This will improve the water quality on its own.

    ajay

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