Front page of a Pune local newspaper read- “ The (water treatment) plant has almost 50%-55% efficiency of treating waste water and remaining untreated effluents are usually discharged into the rivers directly. Mula-Mutha River is one of the major vulnerable rivers of Pune city.”
Praniti Shinde from Sholapur, pointed out that open defecation on the riverbanks, inadequate sewage treatment, and release of untreated domestic wastewater has turned the river into a sewage water carrier. Mula Mutha River further supplies water to Ujani dam, and this dam supplies drinking water to several parts of Solapur district. Hence, the importance of cleaning this river cannot be understated.
Hence, the importance of cleaning this river cannot be understated.
On the occasion of International Coastal Clean Up Day on 17th September, Hexaware Technologies joined hands with Earth5R, to clean up the banks of this river.
The work started early morning with all eager volunteers gathered near the river. There were three members from the Earth5R team- Madhavi Ninganur, Sonam Sengar , Shriyam Jalan and around 15 members from Hexaware. The event initiated with a small EarthTalk delivered by Sonam Sengar propounding on the history of the river and how it is an important resource to the residents there.
Ideas such as creative waste management which includes turning waste into everyday usable items, also referred to as Upcycling, was discussed. Creative waste management also helps in income generation for the economically backward.
Divided in teams, the participants split up to clean up different areas. Recycled plastic bags were used to collect the garbage.
Since it was just next day after the visarjan, the waste from religious rituals could be seen along with plastic debris all around. It felt fulfilling to take the effort and contribute for a positive change. Clean up work continued for more than two hours.
It was inspiring to see that the clean up participants were not just the company’s young employees, but the seniors too came with the same enthusiasm.
During the activity, Madhavi went about interviewing everyone regarding the experience. Everyone put forward their points as to what made them get up in the morning to take this tedious task up; why are they particularly cleaning the river and what were their expectations from youth of our country. It was great to hear such varied opinions.
On the other side of the river, there were slum dwellers cooking their meals and washing clothes at the same place. Seeing this the volunteers educated them about hygienic living and deadly diseases like dengue and chikungunya fever.
The garbage bags were then collected and loaded in the Municipality bins.
Cleaning our surroundings once in a year won’t solve the issues, it should be an everyday practice that will take the country towards a healthy living and picturesque environments are the additional benefits. Cleaning up the polluted lands and water bodies can be something to start with and it felt great to have taken a step in that direction.
Earth5R would like to thank the following people from Hexaware Technologies for such great participation and enthusiasm that made the event a riveting success:
Akshay Joshi, Veerendra Kumar Ankem, Akshay Vyas, Praful Katwe, Jayashree Sikdar, Divya Kanojia, Prashant Tiwari, Amol thatte, Prasad Natekar, Arpit Beedkar, Sanket Joshi, Atulkumar Chandawale, Satish Warrier, Jwala Agrawal, Vaibhav Bhagat, Sagar Guha and Hima Shastri
Imagine 1.3 billion people decide to keep their surroundings clean from today itself! Let’s set up an example for the world; United efforts lead to success.
–Reported by Madhavi Ninganur and Sonam Sengar, Edited by Anushka Mehta, Photos by Madhavi Ninganur
