VIJAYAWADA: "Interlinking of Rivers is not beneficial to the State or the country but will be counterproductive. People should oppose the move," said Water Man of India Dr Rajendra Singh.
Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, Rajendra Singh said that he, along with activists of Jal Biradri, have toured across the country and studied more than 100 rivers in India. “As part of our tour, we came to know that interlinking of rivers in not a good concept as it will create ecological problems in the future. Moreover rivers cannot be linked like roads.
Every river has its own gene pool and character and one river does not match with the other,” he said. Rivers across the country are already polluted and these polluted waters are diverting to other rivers in the name of interlinking to create more pollution, he added. Commenting on the oath taken by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in the ‘Rally for Rivers’ campaign programme held in the city on Wednesday to protect the rivers, Singh said that Naidu must comply with his oath and initate measures to protect the rivers and allow them to flow naturally. Referring to clean waters in rivers, he said sand filters water and it should not be extracted. He expressed concern over the indiscriminate digging and exploitation of sand in Krishna river. In his inspection he found that indiscriminate digging of sand was still in practise at several places downstream of Prakasam barrage.
He also mentioned how sea water has already intruded into the land up to 30 km from Machilipatnam and that it would grow further if the natural course of Krishna river is disturbed. He said people would face drinking water problem due to increase in salinity.Referring to the construction of the new capital in Amaravati, Singh said that future generations would pay a heavy price due to the construction of the capital in a low lying area and mentioned that the proposed capital region is seven metres below the level of Krishna river and observed that it was in a Red zone area, about 30 km from the river.
The Water Man said that the residence of the Chief Minister is also built in the blue zone area, where constructions are not allowed as per the norms. He said that Naidu must take measures to protect the river. Environmentalists Bolisetty Satyanarayana and social activist Anumolu Gandhi were also present at the news conference.
Rally for Rivers a publicity stunt
‘’Rally of Rivers campaign initiated by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev is just a corporate stunt in the name of protecting rivers and it cannot achieve desired results,” said Singh. Corporate companies which encroached and polluted the rivers with their factory wastes are now coming forward to support Sadhguru’s ‘Rally for Rivers’. He reminded that he has organized a rally for the freedom of rivers in the country to mark the 70th independence day and conducted 115 rallies of similar kind in which nature lovers across country have participated and it ended at Bijapur on August 15. Singh clarified he had participated in ‘Rally for Rivers’ campaign with the special invitation of Sadhguru and that there was not personel interest behind it.