The Inconvenient Tale of ‘Development’

I remember as a kid, my friends and I would swim to our hearts' content every Saturday in streams nearby. At the rate that we're depleting our rivers today, I wonder if, in the future, my children would ever perceive what a river/stream looks like.

I remember a time too…when fresh water was freely available to everyone, anytime. People would fetch fresh water free of charge from nearby rivers and streams, and that was enough for everyone. Sadly, that is no longer our reality today. In 2019, according to social researcher Serto Tondana Kom, people staying in urban areas of Churachandpur district collectively spend up to Rs 1,87,80,000 per month due to a shortage of water, which forces them to buy water from tankers for their daily use, including household purposes and drinking.

For hundreds of years, our rivers and streams have been providing us abundantly and freely, and today, we return the favour...only in the most degrading way possible! We give the river the treasures of our bins, let it savour the taste of our sinks and drains, and sometimes our bowels too (why bother to make a separate tank/pit for all of that, right?). We dump in it whatever filth we’ve got – from the dead bodies of animals to heaps of non-degradable materials like plastics and whatnot. Today, a big nullah has replaced the once-gleaming running waters of Churachandpur; the spring of life is no more—it is hidden beneath our uncouth deeds!

The notion of free water has become a mere tale, affecting the masses — rich and poor without partiality. Buying water has become everybody’s inevitable reality — we are now at a defining moment with our water resources; shouldn’t this be a cause for alarm?

There has been a depletion in our fish population due to river pollution, there has been displacement of communities due to dams, and there is also a rush in bottled waters— all these perhaps to replace the potable waters of the rivers we’re murdering, or because we think money would spring up new rivers? But no, we can never have a river in a bottle! We’re divine creators capable of fashioning another Earth!

We are crazy about consuming; we are all in for that high tech life; the government is all about economic growth and structural development. Indeed, we neglect everything ‘grassroot’ and ‘nature’. We trade nature—our basic home, for consumerism and the allure of a 'modern' life. It is perhaps merely symptomatic of this age that we live in—we think we can buy anything and everything with money, and indeed our natural resources are being destroyed daily. Does none of us realise—ignoring the environment is ignoring our health, and our ‘future’ entirely? 

The things we do to our water bodies in the name of development will have serious consequences on the environment. We chained our rivers with bridges and dams, we block their currents and deplete their oxygen content. And when something bad occurs around the perimeter like flood or drought; we call it a “natural calamity”, then we cry to the sky with our arms up in the air—putting all the blame on “nature”. When will our harmful ingenuity end?

If the common masses are too ignorant to discover the aftermath of disturbing nature’s rhythm, it falls upon those in power and authority to cultivate awareness and endeavour to educate the masses, rather than constructing superfluous edifices in the guise of development. With great power comes great responsibility, so as leaders of the tribe, and authorities of the masses, it is first their responsibility to see if any ‘developmental’ constructions are in sync with both nature and society, and not against it. 

Facing the Ugly Truth

All the available clichés have already been used to describe the state of our rivers. Things are pretty bad, and even the most sanguine observer cannot hope for much comfort seeing the manner in which our rivers are being managed.
No man in his senses would deny that, if these are allowed to continue, conditions must become even worse. It is crucial for each one of us to remember our role in it—to remind ourselves time and time again, that natural resources like rivers are everybody’s business. Treating rivers as our own is a necessary notion. Otherwise, we’re merely brewing up an enormous cauldron of poison for our older selves and our grandchildren, and even for our fishes and wildlife too. For it is the deeds we do and the choices we make today that will define our future!
We may be puffing up our chest with pride and calling ourselves citizens of an improved world, but we ought to know that the first rule to success is to remain attached to your roots, and not cut it off. As a group of people who once claimed refuge under mother-nature, and thereby traced their history too, do we dare cut our ties with her and wipe off the rivers and streams that once fed and cleanse us so freely?