Minutes of meeting held on 7 and 8 March 09 at New Delhi and Agra

Draft Minutes of the Meeting/s held on 7 and 8 March 2009
(River Health Index)

Place: PEACE Institute Charitable Trust,
178-F, Pocket -4, Mayur Vihar – I
Delhi – 110 091.

Date and Time: 7 March 2009 (11.00 a.m – 1.00 p.m)

Core planning team members:

Giridhar A. Kinhal
Manoj Misra
Bhim S Rawat
Sudha Mohan

BMS Rathore and Pushp Jain, the other two Core Planning Team members regretted their absence.

Objectives:

Review progress.
Develop the methodology further.

REPORT:

MM welcomed the members present.

On the progress front it was reported that literature review on the question of river health is underway. In addition requests have gone out through a formal communication to several relevant government and non government agencies for help and collaboration in the proposed study. Positive response has already been received from the People’s Science Institute at Dehradun; ICFRE, Dehradun; Office of PCCF, Himachal Pradesh and the Central Pollution Control Board, Delhi.

On the question of an appropriate methodology, a good discussion amongst the participants resulted in following consensus:

a) Four field level partner organizations are under identification at Dehradun, Agra, Etawah and Allahabad and are to be contracted for leading the field work. The basis of the identification of the said partner organizations is as under:

CRITERIA FOR SELECTION OF FLO

- The agency should preferably be a registered NGO / body (Society / Trust)
- The agency should have proven record of activities relating to protection, cleaning, revival of rivers (preferably of river Yamuna) or related to any of the natural resources
- The agency should have proven record of good social networking skills
- The agency should be in a position to spare the services of a point person who should work in a dedicated fashion for the identification and promotion of the activities of site level Task Teams

b) One location after an average of around 100 km down the river shall be selected for focused field assessment in a participatory manner to facilitate local action. Suggested tentative sites are as under:

· Yamunotri – Hathnikund Section :

Yamunotri
Barkot
Hathnikund

· Hathnikund – Delhi Section:

Kalanaur
Chaprauli
DELHI

· Delhi – Ettawah Section:

Chaensa
Shergarh
Farah
Batesar

· Ettawah – Allahbad Section

Jagmmanpur
Kalpi
Marka
Allahabad

At each of these sites the FLO would facilitate the development of Task Teams (consisting of knowledgeable and interested local persons) that shall be investigating the status of the river within a presumed concentric circular grid with centripetal depiction of the impacting elements and centrifugal array of effects on the ecosystem elements including humans as under:

- Activities, agencies, industries etc that impact the river positively or negatively in form of either being a source of water or of pollution or encroachment etc
- The zone of influence in which the river in its compromised state is affecting adversely the health and wellness of the dependent people and other ecosystem elements.
Impact on the river

Positive
Negative
Better Catchment management
Better Tributaries management
Maintenance of river flow
Maintenance of Flood Plains
Functioning STPs
Any other

Poor drainage systems
Ill planned Drains
Encroachment / ‘Development’ / Agriculture (pesticides, inorganic manure)
Industries / Effluent
Degradation of local water bodies
Pollution (solid waste)
Ground water extraction
Barrage / Dam / Bridge
Any other







1
2

1111 Impacting elements Fig 1 2. Affected areas
Fig 1 Pictorial depiction of Impacts and Effects of River use



Effects of the compromised river on

Health (Humans and animals)
Religion
Culture
Traditions
Biota
Economic
Water bodies
Ground water
River structure

Having decided on the structural design of the study site a detailed discussion was held on the social grounding of the study methodology with clear mandate of sharpening and equipping the local communities with potential to take up regular assessment of river health and impact on human health, monitoring of changes and evolving processes/methods to combat or regulate the detrimental causative factors.

HOW ?

The identified Task Team facilitated by the FLO would be expected to reach out to local stakeholders like Farmer; Fishermen; Boatmen; Household; Priest / Temple; Teachers;
Businessmen; Others (Tourists, doctors, sarpanch) etc to develop a close association and understanding about the task at hand and to elicit local understanding about / causes of the manner in which the health of the river and in turn the health of the dependent people (ecosystem) as well as of the flora and fauna in the river has been affected adversely over time.

All these interactions shall be aimed at developing a popular consensus on local actions that the people in the targeted grid can / shall initiate for the revival of the river.

In each grid a MICRO ACTION PLAN shall be developed to facilitate a systematic scientifically oriented community based action.

It was also felt that to develop and implement the field methodology, facilitative props / tools will be needed. Some such props are

PROPS

· Informative posters regarding the project shall be developed for use during outreach as well as training of the members of FLO and the Task Team Members.

· A guidelines document for the preparation of the MICRO ACTION PLAN shall be developed.

· A handy and easy to use water testing kit shall be used for ready assessment of water quality at various places within the grid and the river. (This shall be used both as data gathering as well as an outreach tool)

Field Visit:

It was decided that on the next day 8 March 2009, GAK and MM shall visit Agra to interact with a potential Field Level Organisation (FLO) members who on the lines of the ongoing movement for the revival of river Yamuna in Delhi have been spearheading a Yamuna Campaign in Agra for more than 200 days.

Accordingly a one day visit was made and interactions were held with the following persons who are members of “Guru Vashishth Manav Sarvangin Vikas Sewa Samiti” (a regd community service organisation), that has been spearheading the Yamuna Campaign in Agra:

Sri Ashwini Kumar; Sri Mohan; Sri Ravi; Sri Raman; Sri Kamal Jit Singh and Sri Rajeev Saxena.

It was encouraging to find not only an obvious interest for the activity as proposed among the Samiti members but also good knowledge with them about the river and of the people in and around Agra. While Sri Ashwini Kumar is the key moving force behind the group, Sri Mohan has a number of innovative ideas regarding improved sanitation measures in human dwellings both in urban and in the rural settings, Sri Saxena is a storehouse of immense knowledge on the river and the drainage systems of past and present in the region.

Interaction in Agra with members of Guru Vashishth Manav Sarvangin Vikas Sewa Samiti

NEXT STEPS

a) Hiring of Field level Organisations as partner agencies
b) Preparation of posters and other training tools
c) Preparation of a guidelines document for MICRO ACTION PLANNING
d) Establishment of firm working relationship with other like minded government and non government agencies.