HYDERABAD: In a poem, titled ‘Nightfall in the city of Hyderabad’, Sarojini Naidu described the River Musi as a “white river that flashes and scintillates”. In an 1880s photograph captured by Lala Deen Dayal, the vast river can be observed irrigating the paddy fields along its banks, with people and cattle refreshed by its water. Musi makes its way into the stories and narratives of the people as, for centuries, it has acted as a vital lifeline for many communities. Now a stinking sewage drain, the river poses a threat to the communities using its water.
Keeping in mind the historic significance of the river and the impact its vanishing would have on the people of the city, The Deccan Archive Foundation (TDAF) collaborated with Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Woxsen University’s School of Planning and Architecture (SPA), Aseem, an NGO, and other organisations to hold a workshop, ‘Understanding Musi’ with the students of Focus High School at Darulshifa.
“For a long time, we had intended to get young people interested in the river and its ecology. I and SQ Masood of Aseem organisation got in touch with Focus High School because it is situated right next to the river. They’re very active with the community that lives in and around Musi. We also have been in touch with the Woxsen SPA and thought of involving their students, who were studying the topic of urban design. This helped start a dialogue between the two disciplines of urban planning and ecology,” said Md Sibghatullah Khan, founder of TDAF.
The workshop involved seven students from Class 9 and 10 from the high school and five from Woxsen SPA. The three-day workshop comprised discussions around the geography and ecology of the river. The students were then divided into five teams — each school student coupled with a college student — who explored the area around the river while working on different themes such as river infrastructure, road infrastructure, heritage, green spaces, livelihoods and communities.
The introductory talk for the event was delivered by P Anuradha Reddy, convenor of INTACH, Hyderabad, and TDAF.
This was followed by site visits, collection of data, introduction to digital tools for map-making led by architect and INTACH programme coordinator, Praveen N Pingali. The TDAF also released a report after the workshop, containing the digital map created by the students as a result of this project.
Speaking to TNIE, Pingali said, “This workshop was different from others because it brought school and college students together. For school children, it was very important to start with their memories, stories or narratives that they might have heard from their grandparents. The nature of their association with the river: do they pass through it? Are they asked to look away from it because the river is already considered dead? For architecture students, the focus was on initiatives that can be taken up to revive the river. Both teams came up with a common dialogue.”
Pingali pointed out that despite there being references to the river in literature and paintings, the popular culture lacks imagery of a ‘local river’. “There have been mentions of Krishna, Godavari, etc. But the idea of Musi, which begins and ends in Telangana itself, was never embedded in the popular culture,” he said.
He also shared with students three case studies of cities in Southeast Asia, where the entire city community came together and worked on the idea of the river edge as a community space, a shared space where citizens can relax.
The students, namely Batool Zaidi, Kaneez Sakina, Hadi Abbas, Kannan, Mohammed Ali, Syed Affan and Syed Wahab, were also asked to present their takeaways from the workshop. They wrote poems, essays, and plays and made drawings to express their views. Their teacher — Shaher Bano — also supported them throughout the workshop.
“According to me, the highlight of the workshop was visiting the surroundings of the Musi and gathering pictures of its condition. Through this, I gained more information on how our human actions are polluting and damaging the river ecology. In the name of development, we are vandalising both ecology and heritage,” said Syeda Kaneez Sakina from Class 10.
Syed Affan, from Class 9 shared his learnings with TNIE, “We learnt that the river originates from Ananthagiri Hills in Vikarabad district and merges with the Krishna river at Wazirabad, and its ‘Sangam’ (confluence) with Esa within the city. .”
Another student, Batool Zaidi said that making digital maps was a new experience for them. “We used Felt.com, a website which is linked to the Google Earth application. It allowed us to upload the pictures we took from the sites and place them on the map. This, being digital, was different from the pen and paper we use in school. Something not known to us before, we thought it could only be done by professionals.”
For Kannan, the most challenging part of the project was to collect data. “Since my team focused on the community and livelihoods present around the river, it was challenging to actually find those communities. With the river worsening, the livelihood that was built around it gradually decreased and the only mode of earning money now is through scavenging, cleaning or from dhobi ghats. The fact that it was once a rich ecosystem can be determined by the presence of some very important monuments around the river like the Osmania General Hospital, the high court and the Salar Jung Museum.”
While talking about the possible solutions for reviving the river, Syed Wahab said, “In our sessions, we were told about the problems with the river’s current state and how we should not interfere with its course. This is because if a river is interrupted, it is likely to die. To develop solutions, we should prevent anything from being built on the floodplains.”
Meanwhile, the students said that the most viable solution is to leave the river as it is. “If we cease to add more pollutants to the river, it can naturally purify itself. But, due to the presence of a garbage plant and the regular discharge of sewage into the river, these activities lead to further deterioration. All we need to do is halt any construction activity on the floodplains and discontinue the disposal of garbage into the river,” remarked Kannan. The students also said that it is important to educating people about refraining from polluting the river.
