By Debasmita Ghosh
The days between September 04-08 saw the citizens of Kolkata joining hands with Jaladarsha Collective to support the cause of saving our rivers, waterbodies and wetlands in the event ‘Towards Sustainable Flows’ hosted by Jaladarsha Collective at Jadunath Museum and Resource Centre. The event brought together people for intersecting disciplines on the same platform to raise their voices in unison and share their experiences about the canals of Kolkata. For more than one and half years, Jaladarsha has been studying and documenting the state of the city’s canals, its system of transporting and discharging waste into the EKW and the Hooghly, and its relationship to the communities residing around and connected to its flows. The canals are not just waterways transferring sewage and excess water out of the city; in every twist and turn, these lifelines are carrying history, heritage and memories while still moving to the rhythms of the tidal ebb and flow. It also provides the main source of sewage water in continuing Kolkata’s unique recycling of its organic waste through controlled eutrophication by the East Kolkata Wetlands. The exhibition showcased visual excerpts of the study along with archival documentation of old Calcutta Maps, a reconstructed Map of Kolkata highlighting the present condition of the various canals running through the city and beyond and a citizen’s perspective towards the changes that are impacting the canals of the city expressed through their own personal stories. Along with these, artworks representing perspectives of different contemporary artists on the waterscapes of Kolkata have been displayed.
The event hosted several eminent speakers from the fields of journalism, art, architecture, research, etc. who shared their specific works around the canals of the city. A summary of their presentations has been shared below:
Jayanta Basu said
There is no alternative to collaboration. In democracy, we may differ in opinions but only with collaboration of thoughts and actions we can achieve something together. Especially for people working with environmental issues where they must work horizontally as well as through intersections. At the start of my career in journalism, stories of pond closure always to be restricted to page 7 or 8 of the daily newspaper. The challenge was to bring such issues to the front page which some of us fought to achieve. This was only possible the moment we linked the issue of disappearing waterbodies with economics and politics that made it into a larger story attracting attention. In the whole of South Asia, be it Yamuna in Delhi, Bagmati in Kathmandu, Lyari in Karachi or the Adi Ganga in Kolkata, human activities are turning rivers into drains which is a striking contrast to the rest of the world. River is the pillar of a city. When the Thames was cleaned up and the salmon came back to the waters, there was celebration in London. However, the hilsa in the Ganges now does not even cross the Diamond Harbour. There was a village on the banks of the Rupnarayan river where the fishermen used to only catch hilsa but now that is no longer a reality. The rivers in our country are dying. However, it is possible to revive a dying river. Since several years, a lot of money is being pumped into the rejuvenation of the Adi Ganga, however no effects of these works can be seen on the ground and the present project is also running behind schedule. When Environmental lawyer Subhas Datta filed a case in the NGT regarding Adi Ganga, I had written a piece on the issue both in Telegraph and Down to Earth where I had highlighted those large parts of Adi Ganga beyond south of Garia had been encroached and made into private ponds by the big landholders. A proof of this lies in the fact that usually, a naturally occurring pond is oval or round, but all of these ponds in the private
landholdings were properly embanked long rectangular waterbodies which were constructed by completely blocking chunks of the river for private bathing purposes, while the rest of the course of Adi Ganga in the Rajpur-Sonarpur region had been encroached by the refugee settlements in the area. This piece had been read during a particular hearing in the court on the case and the court had ordered the state for rejuvenation of the Adi Ganga. In 2022, the state had floated an open tender under HIDCO regarding a massive construction project to pass the stretch of Adi Ganga between Hastings and Kalighat through a pipe. The aim was to convert it into a drain, but they were unsuccessful due to pressure from the judiciary. To raise awareness and resist these attempts of killing our rivers and waterbodies, I propose a concrete methodology involving three steps: river dialogue, negotiated approach and linking to Kolkata Climate Action Plan (KCAP). Citizen’s vigilance is inevitable to bring all of this into fruition. Kolkata was the first city to take an anti-fossil fuel pledge. However, this is not enough. Kolkata needs to develop a proper climate action plan.
Tapan Saha said
I have experiences of going along the course of all canals in and around Kolkata, from the source to the sink, scientifically studying the canal ecosystem, biodiversity and monitoring the water quality. Most canals of Kolkata are man-made, excavated for navigational purposes. Every canal has its own unique character, reflected in the tidal flows.
Ayan Sen said
As a practicing architect, I have been very keen on taking up projects around the waterfronts of Kolkata as I felt there was a possibility of figuring out how to respond to the blue system of the city. We made a design team involving students from colleges in Mumbai and Ahmedabad called the water studio where we took up these projects involving the various waterscapes of Kolkata. While working on these we realised that all these different systems such as ponds, lakes, rivers, canals, etc. need to be responded to differently. The city also
largely looks down upon these waterbodies, converting them into only extractive resources. Except for Rabindra Sarovar and a couple other existing lakes and barring a stretch of the Hooghly near strand road, the river has been used largely used for industrial purposes. However, we need to look towards our river, lakes, and canals. These are phenomenal urban resources that just need cleaning for them to be revived and used as a recreational breathing space for the city. Speaking on behalf of the architecture and design community and having met the so-called powerful builders of the city, I feel we all want to respond to the cause but in the end, we leave it up to the government thinking its their job and not ours. However, instead of feeling dejected, one must create conceptual projects, define funding mechanisms and promote public-private partnerships in particular segments of canals, like how certain roads and green spaces are being given to big corporates to maintain. These are steps on a very basic level that can start the process of reviving and reestablishing our connection to the waterbodies.
Jaladarsha 