Committee plans to revive 5 rivers

Committee plans to revive 5 rivers PUNE: The Kirloskar Vasundhara International Film Festival has led to the formation of Pune Nadi Sansad (Pune Rivers' Committee) that plans to revive Mula, Mutha, Devnadi, Ramnadi and Pavana rivers.The committee will work towards bringing the dissolved oxygen (DO) level of the rivers' water up to eight parts per million (ppm). The current DO level in the rivers is

around 1-2 ppm.

After a conference on Muthakaran and a workshop on upper Bhima river basin restoration during the festival this week, environment experts from 30 organizations set up the committee to look into issues related to the rivers. The committee will conduct an annual review in January and take stock of collective action every three months. "The area of work will be the upper Bhima river basin, and the focus will be on Pune, its five polluted rivers and allied issues of encroachment, pollution, exploitation of the rivers including all ground water issues. Villages in the basin will be included in the process one by one," a statement said.

An interim steering committee of 5-7 members has already been selected, including festival director Virendra Chitrav Suneel Joshi, Shailaja Deshpande, Anil Gaekwad, Manish Ghorpade and Vinod Bodhankar. The year's activities have been planned.