00:02The Mulla and Mutha rivers are the reason people first settled here in Pune.
00:06They are the city's two largest rivers and this is where they converge.
00:11Today, Pune is home to nearly 7 million people, making it one of India's largest cities.
00:16And the rivers are suffering. Garbage and industrial waste water flow into them every day.
00:23In some stretches, oxygen levels have fallen so low that hardly anything can survive.
00:31Residents are taking a stand.
00:33For nearly 9 years, Ashwini has been making regular trips down to the river banks.
00:39Because riverbed, wet waste or we can say dry waste, it directly goes into the water flow.
00:46So we want to collect that garbage from the river itself.
00:53Ashwini is a nature lover and homemaker who volunteers with the citizen led NGO Jeevit Nadi.
00:58For 12 years, the group has been running clean-ups and awareness campaigns, getting as many residents involved as possible.
01:07The idea is simple. Only collective action can save the rivers.
01:26If there are no lotuses on the river, then the birds won't come here.
01:31Everyone who's drinking water, all of them, should be involved in this process.
01:36Because if this is how bad the river is now, imagine what it's going to be like in 10 to
01:4020 years' time.
01:44Manish is an engineer by profession and he has been involved with Jeevit Nadi from the start.
01:49He spent his childhood along the river, playing cricket right here.
01:54Today, he guides river walks, showing people why the rivers are important for the city and why they are in
02:01such poor condition.
02:05One is the pollution, which is actually the major part is the sewage pollution.
02:11Today, hardly 20 to 30% of the sewage is treated.
02:1670 to 80% sewage is untreated, which is directly dumped into the rivers.
02:22Another, which is not much talked about, is the use of chemicals or the chemicals which are coming not from
02:29the industry but from our own homes.
02:31Because of our lifestyle choices.
02:34Jeevit Nadi also works with researchers who found that household detergents, especially for laundry, are a major source of water
02:42pollution.
02:44The phosphates in these products cause a major problem.
02:53We advise the government that detergents should not contain phosphates.
02:57If there's phosphate in the water, water hyacinth will grow.
03:00And how will you control it?
03:02There's no water hyacinth.
03:04There's no water hyacinth.
03:05There's no water hyacinth.
03:06Phosphates encourage the spread of water hyacinth.
03:10An invasive floating plant that rapidly covers the river's surface.
03:14It blocks sunlight and takes oxygen away from native plants and aquatic life.
03:21But pollution isn't the only issue.
03:23For months, major construction has been underway along the river banks.
03:28Authorities have allocated more than 4,700 crore rupees, which is over 440 million euros, to redevelop the riverfront.
03:38Long stretches of concrete are replacing the green banks.
03:41Jeevit Nadi volunteers worry that the natural river habitats are disappearing.
03:46It has to be built structure along the bank, 44 kilometers.
03:53Thousands of trees are going to be cut.
03:56It's not just the trees.
03:58It's all the ecosystem there, which is going to get completely wiped off.
04:04It's an example of really completely misplaced priority.
04:08Let us do this project, but in a more nature-friendly way, in a more river-friendly way, so that
04:15the best of both worlds can be achieved.
04:19The volunteers want to preserve the more than 50 living streams and prevent them from being concreted over.
04:25For them, maintaining natural banks, wherever possible, is crucial.
04:31I grew up next to the river because my school was on the river bank.
04:35And so when the riverfront development and all that started, that is when you started realizing you're losing everything.
04:41Because it's no longer like it used to be, and it'll never go back to that.
04:45So that was the thing which caused me to start volunteering and doing what I could for the river.
04:53The city has begun to respond as well.
04:55Several sewage treatment plants are under construction, with more planned.
05:00They should eventually ensure that only treated water enters the rivers.
05:05But that is still years away.
05:08Restoring the mula and mutha will remain a Herculean task for everyone involved.
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