It takes a village to clean a river as Malaguni waits to get back to old self

Bhubaneswar: Residents of Golabai village in Khurda district, 45km from Bhubaneswar, have taken it on themselves to clean a part of Malaguni river, covered with weed and water hyacinth for the last five years, in four days.More than 70 people, including 22 women, started cleaning a 200-metre stretch of the river near their village on Saturday.This process to clean the river will continue for two more days so that it does not die a slow death, said the villagers on Sunday.Rabi Naik, who is leading the cleanliness drive, said people of his village use the river water for bathing and washing clothes, apart from irrigation. “The invasive weed and water hyacinth damage the water quality.

To save this, we need to clear these unwanted weed from the river. We discussed this and started the cleanliness drive ourselves,” he said.He added the river, which originated from the forest area bordering Ganjam and Khurda districts, flows through Khurda and Puri. Malaguni, a tributary of Daya river, eventually flows into Chilika Lake.“This river is dying due to lack of water flow and deposition of sediment. The invasion of unwanted weed is creating a problem,” said Naik.

Dhruba Charan Parida, another villager who took part in the drive, said they have cleaned around 100 metres of the river. “We will clear the remaining 100 metres in the next two days,” he said.Ullhas Chandra Parida, another villager, said community-driven initiatives like this will take this Malaguni clean-up campaign a step forward.