Once known as the Manchester of North India, Kanpur, today is the city of tuberculosis - stinking, decaying and dying. Situated along the banks of the river Ganges, the city depends on the river’s water for most of its needs. In 1988, the entire stretch of Ganges in Kanpur was identified as being highly polluted with industrial effluents from chemical industries and tanneries, and corpses. Various schemes were initiated under the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) - Phase I in order to depollute the river and restore water quality but the situation has worsened to the extent that the river has not only earned the reputation of being ‘dead’ with no aquatic life, it has caused severe health problems to the entire population of Kanpur and in particular the poor.

In 1993, Rakesh K. Jaiswal, a young student who was successfully pursuing his PhD in environmental Politics one day discovered that the clean drinking water from his tap was suddenly replaced by a black, viscous and stinking liquid. It was definitely water from the sewage. This was not the problem of an individual house but the entire neighbourhood and other areas in the town. Some of the households stopped using supplied water for drinking purposes and installed tubewells for their direct consumption. However, given the investment required for tubewell installation, many poor families could not afford the "luxury" of clean drinking water. They had to depend on common community hand-pumps, which was mostly crowded.

Sickened by the situation, Rakesh decided to investigate. What he discovered was more horrifying:

• The main raw water source for the city was receiving highly contaminated and polluted domestic sewage water from five drains including one from a tuberculosis hospital

• The water drawn from this source was being supplied to the city with only some conventional treatment like chlorination

• The river was the carrier of many toxic elements including carcinogenic chromium from leather industries, which ultimately intoxicate the food chain

• Tannery effluent, rich in chromium content was being used for irrigating agricultural fields in Kanpur, leading to soil degradation and health problems for farmers and their cattle

• Many human and animal corpses at various stages of decay were floating in the river

This problem does not pertain only to Kanpur. On the entire stretch of the Indo-Gangetic plains with each year the river waters overflowing into farmlands and grazing fields during the monsoon season and along the hundred of towns on the banks of the river, similar problems are found. Hence there exists little aquatic life at the moment due to the degraded habitat as a result of river pollution. Many species are on the verge of extinction, particularly the Gangetic Dolphin which is endemic to the river.

A large number of people living on the banks have direct dependence on the river waters for their livelihood such as fishermen, washermen, boatmen and the traditional cremator communities like Dom and Pandas. As a result of the pollution in the river, these communities were been greatly affected. Fishes were almost nil and even those that survived were not fit for human consumption. The people no longer took boat rides in the river due to the repulsive odour and sight thus affecting the livelihood of the traditional boatmen. The washermen have few places to go along the banks to wash clothes and their contact with the river water equally dangerous.

Time for Action

Rakesh K. Jaiswal

Forgetting about his PhD, Rakesh decided that it was time for immediate action and he registered an NGO called Eco-Friends. Since no environmental issues is effective unless it is backed by environmental education, he adopted ‘education and awareness’ as the first phase of its action-programme. He visited the educational institutions of the city to make the students aware of the issue, especially the condition of river Ganges. He organised field trips for school children along the polluted river and demonstrated how it was affecting their daily life. It was an attempt to wake the people of Kanpur from their deep slumber. Rallies, demonstrations, marches and signature campaigns were organised in order to shake the administration to clean up the deteriorating environment and the river Ganges.

The response from the people was immense. Thousands of school children, citizens, army personnel, media as well as the communities such as Dom, Pandas, washermen, boatmen and fishermen came forward to demonstrate their rights for a clean and healthy environment.

In June ’97, Rakesh, with the help from the Dom community, fished out 180 dead bodies including 20 animal carcasses from 6 Kms stretch of river Ganges in Kanpur. It was shocking for the people. These were mainly unclaimed and post-autopsy bodies dumped into the river by the police. Other bodies included those of children and unmarried people or those who have died of various diseases or snakebites since it is a practice not to burn such bodies but immerse them into the river.

Although the authorities moved out of their shell of inactivity, it was evident that they lacked will power and determination. The circumstances required immediate action that could only be brought about through litigation. On July 97, Rakesh filed a Writ Petition in the Allahabad High Court. This writ petition turned the campaign against pollution of river Ganges into a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case.¹

The PIL faced a tough bureaucracy from as many as 10 government departments. There was a strong effort and lobby to mislead the court with false figures and facts. After a prolonged battle with affidavits and counter-affidavits, the court saw the truth after which a series of important orders were delivered by the court including the review of the Ganga Action Plan - Phase II (GAP - II). A probe has also been ordered on the money spent and the quality of the work done in GAP - I.

The Alliance for a responsible and united Kanpur

It was during this fierce legal battle that I met Rakesh in May this year. He appeared tough, determined and uncompromising. For five years, he had alone led a people’s movement, gone through difficult times and faced resistance from vested interests. The loneliness in his eyes was clearly evident. He seemed a bit tired too and his health was giving away due to harsh, polluted and hostile working environment of Kanpur. I knew he needed friends and support and so I forced him to accept the invitation to the Youth Workshop being organised by the Alliance in Manali, India. And in less than a week he was with the Young Allies where we worked for 5 days in the salubrious climate of the Indian Himalayas.

Inspired by the Youth Workshop and the spirit of the Alliance, Rakesh took no time in launching an Alliance for a Responsible and United Kanpur. The Alliance gave him an invisible but tangible strength that provided him with the energy from friends all over the world. It provided him with an insight of organising his local movement and linking it up with a global one. The first step in this direction was to launch ‘Kanpur 2001’ in order to develop a definite vision for the new millennium. In this regard an opinion poll was conducted to identify and prioritise top five urban environmental problems of Kanpur city. More than 4000 families participated in this poll and 80% of the participants have expressed their desire to become active Alliance partners to improve life in their city.

Armed with the peoples’ mandate and support, Rakesh has recently launched a series of activities and campaigns through his network of schools since he has tremendous faith in the energy, strength and enthusiasm of these young souls. "The problems are new and so we need a new kind of leadership. We have to do away with the present leaders if we are to change the world for the better", says Rakesh.

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