River rejuvenation has a new role model in the making – the Mandakini river in Chitrakoot, the Faglu river in Bihar and the Kshipra in Ujjain. And then finally extrapolating rejuvenation of the Ganga, Yamuna, Narmada and Brahmaputra.
As a country, water security is not a problem area – it is THE biggest risk to the Indian economy. Failure on water security will lead to failure in food security. And these two will impact energy security, finally leading to economic failure.
In fact nothing else matters. If water fails, all fails. There are red flags all around. Wastelands are expanding at an unprecedented rate. Punjab is becoming a desert, cancer is spreading faster than the benefits of economic progress and ground water is both depleted and contaminated.
The meeting of the national think tank at the Deendayal Research Institute at Chitrakoot highlighted the known. But with one important difference. The group proposed a path and seemed to have the willpower to implement this path. Starting with three small rivers – Mandakini in 2026, Faglu in 2027 and Kshipra in 2028.
Essentially there is an admission that the Kshipra cannot be restored before the Simmhastha Kumbh in 2028. So that will need to be done by pumping water from the Narmada. Whether people agree to visit a kumbh without any sangam of rivers or without any river at all is something that needs to be seen.
The Kumbh is held at a holy spot. It is at the ghats around the Mahakal in 2028. This is the sangam of the Kshipra and Kahn river. Kshipra has dried and Kahn is now a drain. The only way out now is to tunnel out the sewage of the Kahn away from the ghats and to feed the Kshipra through a pipeline from the Narmada. The Narmada is a good 120 kms away and 300m down. The technology is easy.
But the Kumbh is about faith. Not about technology. 2016 Kumbh was also done with piped water from the Narmada. Kumbh 2016 was a hit (heavy rains and floods notwithstanding) but 2028 is a different era. By then ai would have got to 10x of where it is today. And in 2028 every single one of the 250 million visitors expected would be ai enabled and smartphone possessing. So how would faith and Aastha get affected. Will they believe that a swimming pool created with piped water is the sangam of two rivers in real time.
The challenge right now for Kumbh 2028 is improving the pilgrim experience by enhancing the Mahakal and Omkaleshwar experience. And moving the focus away from the river. Or shifting the Kumbh to the Narmada instead of piping water from the Narmada.
The ideal outcome would be to pivot the Kumbh to a sangam of the Narmada and Kshipra. To do so, the Narmada can be pumped into the Kahn and the Kshipra could be revived. By using ai and sub surface hydrogeological scanning – it is completely feasible to revive the Kshipra – given adequate focus and resources.
This would make Kumbh 2028 truly a celebration of river rejuvenation and an important step towards ensuring water security.
