Developing integrated river pollution management framework

Water Pollution is one of the major environmental challenges of developing countries like India. Pollution in rivers is largely due to untreated wastewater that flows to the river from urban settlements and industrial establishments and drawl of water (largely for irrigation).

The issue of growing water stress makes it imperative to control water pollution and manage deteriorating basins. There have been many piecemeal efforts (mostly oriented towards technical interventions) in managing the river basins and water pollution issues but most efforts fall short due to limited integrated approach adopted till date.

Understanding the need for undertaking holistic approach for solving river basin issues, TERI proposes to investigate the current situation of two river basins of India, the Yamuna and the Musi which are struggling with the problem of pollution, using ‘Systems Thinking’ approach and through stakeholder engagement.

The project would undertake stakeholder and institutional mapping to understand the roles and responsibilities of the key players in the basin and to engage with them to identify key issues and challenges. The stakeholder consultation would be a regular process to further arrive at the stakeholder prioritized actionable solutions which would help in development of an integrated framework for river pollution management. Further, through policy analysis, policy recommendations would be provided in the form of policy brief which would be widely disseminated.