[ Keyom Doni ]
Greetings, people of Itanagar. You may or may not know my name, but I have been here since time immemorial. Every day, for however many years in the past, I do not know, but I always pass through almost every colony, sector, and village of Itanagar city. I have seen how Itanagar has transformed from vast trees and greenery to concrete buildings and various types of vehicles. I have also witnessed the rise in temperature in the atmosphere. I have seen how, in the name of urbanization, people have cut down trees, destroying the existence of greenery, and how they are embracing modern lifestyles while distancing themselves from their age-old traditions and culture. In doing so, they have somehow forgotten to respect nature and have become less sensitive towards the environment. With the establishment of big buildings, fancy cars, and smartphones, they have forgotten their moral responsibility towards the environment, which is reflected in their actions such as throwing plastic and other garbage directly into my streams, engaging in open defecation by connecting their toilet pipes to my streams, reshaping my path into a narrow channel, and even diverting my course in new directions, all in the name of urbanization. Initially, they throw their waste and garbage into my streams, and then they refer to me as a nallah (drain) and ganda pani (dirty water). This is my story, and I am Yagamso River. Sadly, people now call me Ganda Nallah (Dirty Drain).
Not long ago, until the early 2000s, people used to come for bathing in my streams, if I remember correctly. Some places where people used to go for bathing in the Yagamso streams were near PYBSS hotel and near WAII Apartment or Gaai Katnai Jaga (Cow Slaughtering region). Moreover, workers from the Dhobi Dukan (laundry shop) used to come to my banks and wash their clothes. One of the places where such washing was done was inside the IG Park stream, where a bridge exists today. Besides that, kids and young adults used to come to this IG Park stream for fishing and catching crabs and shrimps. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. In the past 20 years, Itanagar has developed significantly, as have its people. However, actions like throwing plastic and toilet waste into my stream have also increased. Over the years, due to a series of such ill practices, my streams have become more and more polluted. This pollution has destroyed the ecosystem of my streams; fish and other aquatic life have disappeared. In some parts, the situation in the Yagamso is so dire that water pollution has led to eutrophication, making it impossible for fish and other aquatic life to survive. Sadly, I am not able to do anything about it.
Let me narrate a story of water pollution that occurred in Japan in 1932, known as the Minamata Incident. This happened when factories started dumping their waste directly into the rivers, including a chemical called methylmercury along with other wastes. Methylmercury can cause neurological disorders in human beings. People in the local area started consuming the fish from these chemically polluted waters, and the ill effects soon became apparent. Animals such as cats and dogs were the first to suffer. The term ‘dancing cat disease’ was coined from this incident. Furthermore, water pollution is a major cause of diseases like cholera and typhoid. According to a report in “The Times of India,” polluted water killed seven people a day in India in 2018, while at least 36,000 people were diagnosed with waterborne diseases every day. This clearly indicates that water pollution is not something to be taken lightly.
When I, Yagamso River, lost all faith in humanity and was on the verge of becoming a Nallah (drain), two goodwill organizations came to my rescue: the Abralow Memorial Multipurpose Society and the Youth Mission for Clean River – Arunachal Pradesh, along with the support of Itanagar Smart City Development Corporation Limited. For the past eight months, they have been intensively conducting the Yagamso River cleaning drive, as well as door-to-door awareness campaigns on how to keep the river clean by not throwing garbage into it, segregating the garbage, conducting painting and quiz competitions, organizing plantation drives, and river cleaning programs with school children, among others. Their reports show that they have extracted more than 11,000 kg of garbage waste, including plastics, construction debris, electronics, metal, biomedical waste, paper, hazardous materials, glass, wood, and animal carcasses, among others. However, it is only today that this has come to your attention, while I have been enduring all this pollution since the day you people decided to sacrifice me in the name of modernization, and today I am almost irreparably damaged. But today, when I see young people expressing remorse and taking the initiative to educate the younger generation about environmental pollution and how to be responsible towards the environment, I am beginning to see a ray of hope.
Today, I, Yagamso River, am filled with joy and hope that in the coming days, they will rejuvenate my streams and give me back my life. However, I am also aware that this rejuvenation process is not the work of one person alone but will require the help of every citizen living in the Itanagar Region. Every citizen must understand that participating in the rejuvenation process does not necessarily mean being physically present with the organization, but you can contribute by simply being a responsible citizen. This includes following the rules and regulations set by the Itanagar Municipal Council diligently and making small gestures like abstaining from using plastic bags or creatively utilizing leftover vegetable waste as manure in kitchen gardens or flower pots. If you all are responsible towards me, Yagamso River, starting today, I can make a promise to provide you with every opportunity and enable you to utilize them according to your culture and traditions. In return, all I ask is to give me back my life! (The contributor is a 4th Semester M.Ed student)
