I was watching this video by Rainmatter Foundation about how Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) cleaned up the Kham river in 5 years. It had become a sewage drain, and they turned it back into a flowing river. Made me think about especially of Delhi's air quality problem. They mapped 249... waste entry points with drones and installed traps. Rerouted sewage to treatment plants and built new ones. Set up a facility for textile waste from factories. Cleaned the river and discovered springs that were buried under debris. Fixed waste collection across the city, removed 170 dump sites. The municipal commissioner joined weekend cleanups himself. Citizens showed up every Saturday. The key was stopping waste from entering the river in the first place, not just cleaning it. If a smaller city can pull this off in 5 years with the municipal corporation, NGOs, and citizens working together, I was wondering if governments, businesses, NGOs, and citizens actually collaborate, can't they make a difference in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and many other cities where the Air quality is really bad.show more

This is so good. Delhi doesn't just need solution for Air Quality but also need to treat Yamuna River. & as a matter of fact, India can grow a lot more. ✅ Clean the rivers ( Sambhajinagar has done the great work. Even Ahmedabad did it successfully ) ✅ Work on controlling the pollution ✅ Make cities greener & clean ( can learn from Indore ) ✅ Encourage public transport ✅ Revive river bodies ( @artofliving_sp is doing great work in this. Have revived 1000+ water bodies, 70+ rivers ) India should focus on this, development will follow with it.

@RainmatterOrg Mapping sources and stopping pollution at entry points beats endless cleanup drives. Prevention > optics!

@RainmatterOrg My City

@RainmatterOrg Yes. I live in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and a skeptic mediaperson in me initially laughed at the project, presuming this will be another static case of public money in drain. But administration, volunteers and concerned citizens did it! Kudos.

The problem is that in the big metros, everyone thinks they are a Limited Partner ... they put in the money (taxes) but don't want any involvement in the day-to-day operations of not trashing the place. In Delhi, if u fly a drone to find the source of pollution, the drone just gets depressed, coughs twice, and falls out of the sky from sheer AQI-induced existential dread!😂

@RainmatterOrg Coovam river in chennai needs this change! Mapping the mess

You can’t do anything unless you fill vacant positions in Regulatory bodies Nearly 50% of posts in panels on pollution control vacant While many STPs exist, significant capacity is missing, and many built plants are non-operational or inefficient, failing to meet standards. Over 75% of sewage in the Ganga basin flows untreated, with cities dumping billions of liters daily, turning tributaries like Assi and Varuna into open drains.

@RainmatterOrg Follow @cleanAirBharat to understand the problem as a problem well defined is half solved. we need governance, skilled people, systems, KRAs, accountability, and the budget to run our cities. Most municipalities lack most / all of these. DM if you want to make a difference.

@RainmatterOrg

@RainmatterOrg Radio silence & nothing more. 💝

@RainmatterOrg cc @Carpe_Ecosattva @WRIIndia

@RainmatterOrg Point is its a smaller city .. Hence people think it as their home ..

@RainmatterOrg @Prasaadhere .

@RainmatterOrg Hi Nithin, If Rain Matter Co were to take up one true dream project, it would be restoring the Vrushabhavathi River in Bengaluru. Imagine a clean, flowing river through the city, with families gathering along its banks for picnics and leisure, it would be truly transformative.

@RainmatterOrg Thank you @Nithin0dha. Keeping it simple/real, getting our basics right, stemming the pollution, reconnecting the community to the river, managing stakeholders, it's all doable. Most importantly, having a rock solid funding @VarrocGlobal partner has been key to the success so far

@RainmatterOrg Bro - Pl check, If something can be done for our “Vrushabhavathi River” in Bengaluru.

@RainmatterOrg Just thinking out loud , Delhi and surrounding areas have thick fog and causing accidents What if an 16k rupees range radar is retro fitted to cars for better detection and display of over head vehicles I know yellow/white fog beam lights for cars exists though @Nithin0dha

@RainmatterOrg You are right. Why don’t you start with your Zerodha installing giant air purifiers or Smog filters in NCR as part of CSR initiative? I am sanguine that it will yield small but considerable results. #AirPollution @anandmahindra you may also come together for this cause Sir.

@RainmatterOrg Indore is the another fabulous example.

@RainmatterOrg Can we atlesst clean the big drains for example, drain under Domlur flyover, drain near Indiranagar BDA, Drain in HSR parallel to outer ring road. They all stink. Not sure, BDA sites In Indiranagar may be the costliest in BLR ? @BBMPSWMSplComm @DKShivakumar

@RainmatterOrg ಮೊದಲು ವೃಷಭಾವತಿ ಗೆ ಮಾಡಿ #Rajakaluve

@RainmatterOrg Nithin sir you are my legend

@RainmatterOrg @chennaicorp @Udhaystalin @mkstalin can we do this for chennai cooum as well please 🙏🙏🙏

@RainmatterOrg Proof that systems + leadership + citizen buy-in actually work

I landed in Delhi last night , anticipating extremely hostile air, as per social media. Found it was exactly the same as kolkata if not worse, but a bit drier. Then I looked at AQI across all major tier 1 and 2 cities in India, pakistan and bangaladesh, from Delhi, lahore, bilaspur, dhaka , dehradun... Each and every city has more or less similar AQI considering everything. With that limited knowledge, I believe that the pollution is more of a systemic problem of the developing countries in this part of the world, but delhi gets used as a PR tool for political opposition. Definitely it can change, but , the political narrative around it needs to go too.. Else the problem is more valuable than the solution for a significant amount of decision makers.

@RainmatterOrg We can find solutions for most of the problems. But do we have political will to do it ? Secondly do our politicians really care for environment?

@RainmatterOrg No idea of the other cities, but Bangalore is too corrupt to do anything by any sensible NGOs!

Are we as citizens even ready? I see this in Hyderabad every day—people throwing trash on roads and dumping waste into drains. Fences are built to stop it, and people just throw garbage over them. Before blaming any government, we should ask ourselves: are we ready to be organised and responsible citizens?

@RainmatterOrg Absolutely brilliant

@RainmatterOrg If one city has a blueprint they are willing to share, no other needs to reinvent the wheel, but merely set up task forces and get to work.

@RainmatterOrg I get a notification for every tweet of yours. Before opening twitter, I just hoped it's not something about the markets. Only to my surprise a tweet about my city Ch.Sambhajinagar.

@RainmatterOrg need this for the Vrishabhavathi River in Bangalore

@RainmatterOrg @MumbaiMarch rallied citizens alongwith CM, CM wife etc. etc. - political will absent in Mumbai

@RainmatterOrg how much did this whole change cost?