Orissa river conference : a report by Ranjan Panda

Three day long ‘Odisha river conference’ concludes on Monday( 20th April 2009) with a declaration to safeguard rivers.

Odisha river conference comes out with ‘Sambalpur declaration on saving our rivers’ that calls to stop abuse of rivers and restore people’s traditional and natural rights over the rivers. Odisha river conference was organised by Water Initiatives Orissa and Indian River Network in Sambalpur. About 75 people, coming from across the country, participated in this three day long deliberation held during 18 – 20 April 2009. These included activists, researchers, academicians, environmentalists, farmers and civil society organisations.

Let the rivers flow for people who love and live on them, concludes Odisha Rivers Conference

‘Let the rivers flow for those who love her and live on her’. The three day long Odissa conference at Sambalpur came to a close today with strong resolve to save the rivers from degradation. It also has charted a roadmap for the future. The first two days discussed about various issues and case studies of river degradation and their impacts on community depending on them. It also deliberated on technical aspects that govern a river flow and how rivers are changing in nature and behaviour. Rivers are dying fast and people depending on those rivers are facing immense hardship was the gist of the discourses. On the third day of the conference participants went for a field visit to villages of Hirakud command areas who have been fighting a relentless and ever-growing battle against the diversion of water from irrigation’s share to industries.

The deliberation ended with a unified call, called as ‘Sambalpur declaration on saving our rivers’ that aims to spread information, awareness and action to save rivers from human interference and resultant degradation. The conference has also set a roadmap for action which includes documentation and creation of a comprehensive database on rivers. It resolved that abuse of river for economic gains like industrialisation cannot be tolerated at social and environmental cost of river. Citing the example of irreparable ecological damages done to most of the rivers by unmindful development interventions, it said that government should no more take it as its own right to use a river and start respecting the riparian rights which the communities have been traditionally and naturally enjoying since the beginning of the civilizations. The conference declared that a river network will be formed where people and institutions from varied fields like universities, academicians, activists, farmers, river users, NGOs, students and other likeminded groups will work together to instil a sense of responsibility towards the river and also to assert legitimate, traditional and environmental rights of the people and various regions.

Some of the important resolutions of the conference are as follows:

To document people’s institutions of water governance; people’s knowledge on river management and work towards integrating those in river basin planning and management. To do this, initiate processes towards community based and ecologically viable river basin governance that builds up from below and where the traditional/customary as well as new panchayati raj institutions also have a proper stake.

To pressurize the policy makers to have a fresh water/ecological impact assessment of all dams and industrial projects that are affecting the river systems and work towards advocating decommissioning of dams and such industrial projects if necessary for maintaining and sustaining the ecological health of the rivers and socio-economic-cultural benefit of communities dependent on the same.

To advocate for non-allocation of river and reservoir water to industries and for allocation of the same to drinking water and irrigation.

To study pollution of rivers due to industrialization, urbanization and other such reasons and work towards raising more awareness on such negative impacts at the community level. Also, to advocate for non establishment of mineral and water intensive industries near the river systems and at the cost of ecology.

To work towards conserving the river eco-systems and their catchments and promote basin based development approach.

While concluding the conference Ranjan Panda of Water Initiatives Orissa called on the government to hear the clear message coming from Sambalpur declaration and start action on safeguarding the rivers. He also called on people to raise their voices so loud that the government or those who use rivers for their self economic interest will be bound to hear and act.”

Professor Arttabandhu Mishra in his concluding remarks said that for Indians rivers are mother and god. It has scientific and environmental reasons to be accorded such respect. He called to start river resurrection action immediately and honestly.

Founder Member of Indian River Network, Kumar Kalanand Mani; Leading farmer and political activist Lingaraj; noted social activists Prof Durga Prasad Nayak, Dr Mangalu Charan Biswal, Saroj Mohanty and Mehboob Mahtab led discussions with grassroots facts and social analysis while Sisir Pradhan, Pranab Ranjan Choudhury, Manas Ranjan, Sushanta Mahapatra, Surya Prakash Rai and Bimal Prasad Pandia analysed technical, economical and environmental aspects of river. In the inaugural session, Ranjan Panda, Convener of Water Initiatives Orissa and Prof Artabandhu Mishra, Chairman of Indian River Network presented the base paper for the conference and highlighted the status of the rivers of Orissa, which clearly depicted how most of the rivers in the state are on the verge of a decay