River rejuvenation and other innovations

The fourth in a series of weekly articles on the new National Water Policy

From time immemorial, the people of India have had a profoundly reverential relationship with rivers, which form an integral part of our social and cultural life. Many regard the water of rivers as holy and imbued with healing powers. However, water policy since Inde­pen­dence has seen rivers primarily as a resource to be deployed to serve economic purposes. This overwhelmingly instrumentalist view of rivers has led to their terrible degradation, so much so that many rivers today have significantly reduced flows and at times have become cesspools of pollution.

The new National Water Policy (NWP) gives the greatest importance to