Climate Front Hyderabad argues Musi project fails to address root cause behind pollution in river

They claimed the project was aimed at establishing commercial establishments along the river bed for generating revenue for the government coffers

Hyderabad: A group of youngsters, environmentalists and activists on Sunday took a critical view of the Congress government’s Musi River Front Development Project and argued that it fails to address root cause of the pollution in the river – industrial and pharmaceutical effluents discharges into the river.

They claimed the project was aimed at establishing commercial establishments along the river bed for generating revenue for the government coffers.

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Addressing a press conference organized by Climate Front Hyderabad here, John Michael of Musi Andolan said in the name of the Musi development, the government intends to develop commercial establishments and generate revenue.

Michael sought to know if there was any policy, detailed project report, environmental and social impact assessment reports for the project.

Any attempt to re-develop, rejuvenate or clean the river is nothing more than a “cosmetic” fix, until the industrial and pharmaceutical companies’ pollution in the river is addressed, he said.

Anmol of Climate Front Hyderabad pointed out that several river redevelopment projects in Europe failed due to concreting of the river bed and added, “It is time to save the rivers but not build concrete structures on the river bed.”

Environmentalist P Ravi Babu said the previous government undertook the river redevelopment at the cost of Rs.1,600 crore and sought to know how the project cost escalated to Rs.1.5 lakh crore and the benefits from it. He wanted the government to make the detailed project report public. “The river first needs cleaning, not beautification,” he said.

Activist Prithvi Raj wanted the government to first crack the whip on pharma companies, which were discharging 48 different pollutants into Musi. He alleged the government has come up with the Musi project to mint money. “Do not kill people’s happiness here to make your Delhi bosses happy,” he said.

Senior journalist Vittal sought to know whether the State government served notices on the pharma companies discharging effulents into the river. Apart from chemical industries, the municipalities have been polluting the river with sewerage.

According to Vittal, in the case of river rejuvenation projects, the UN has come up with RRR- Rehabilitation and compensation, Regularise buildings, and Removal policy. But, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has taken up only removal of the houses, he said.