The International Day of Action for Rivers, inspired and mandated by the participants of the First International Meeting of People Affected by Dams is observed on March 14 around the world by the affected communities. While it has not been recognised by the United Nations, it is popular among the communities suffering due to dams, barrages and cuts on the rivers.

A meeting regarding rights of the river was held in Brazil in 1997. March 14 was then marked as the day of action for rivers. The participants demanded that rivers be provided the same rights as a living human being: rights to free flow, rights to regenerate and others. Environmentalists and affected communities around the globe came together to ask governments and powerful people not to destroy the rivers. They asked that steps be taken to allow the natural flow of rivers to continue.

The demand to give personhood rights to the rivers, especially Indus, is not new or unique. Globally, there are several examples where rivers have been accorded the same rights as a human being.

According to the Earth Law Centre, which works for the rights of nature, humans and corporations own water rights while waterways can own rights to their own flows. Inspired by long-standing indigenous beliefs, governments worldwide are passing laws that recognise the rights of nature. Rivers have been a focal point of the movement, with rivers in New Zealand, Ecuador, Colombia, Bangladesh, and the United States being recognised as subjects of rights.

The constitution of Ecuador says, “Nature has the right to exist, persist, maintain itself and regenerate”. The Vilcabamba River of Ecuador was the first to win the right to restoration by the court. Whanganui River in New Zealand was provided personhood rights after 150 years of struggle by the local tribes.

The Uttarakhand High Court in India has recognised the Ganges and Yamuna as ‘living entities’ with fundamental rights. However, the decision was stayed by the Supreme Court. A High Court in Bangladesh ruled in January 2019 that all rivers in Bangladesh are living entities with the same legal rights as humans. Bangladesh’s National River Conservation Commission (NRCC) is the appointed legal guardian of the country’s rivers. According to the Constitutional Court of Colombia, The Atrato River possesses inherent rights to “protection, conservation, maintenance and restoration.”

Klamath River and Snake River in the USA have rights to “exist, flourish and evolve naturally” amongst other rights.

There are active ongoing campaigns for the rights of rivers in Pakistan, Mexico, USA, Colombia, Nigeria, Serbia, France and several other countries.

In Pakistan, Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum leads the campaign that demands personhood rights for Indus River and Indus Delta. It celebrates the International Rivers Day with two weeks of activities. In the past, it had organised a caravan from Hyderabad to Islamabad.

Muhammad Ali Shah, the chairperson of the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum, tells The News on Sunday (TNS) that dams around the world have damaged the ecosystem of the rivers, affecting especially the lives of populations living downstream.

“More than 80 million people in the world have suffered due to dams,” he says.

He adds that out of 222 big rivers in the world, only 21 rivers are still reaching their destination, the sea. There are more than 0.8 million small rivers.

“The rivers that reach their destination are called alive while others are called dead rivers,” he says.

Shah says, “A river is a living entity, it should be treated accordingly. Natural flow of Indus should be restored. It it should reach its destination – the sea.”

Talking about the dams, he says that there are around 0.8 million small and medium dams in the world. A dam higher than 15 metres qualifies as a large dam. There are 57,000 large dams. In 1950, the number stood at 5,000 but between 1950 and 2000, it grew to reach a total of 57,000 large dams.

The global anti-dam movement kicked off after 2000. Since then, he adds, the construction of dams across the globe has slowed down, he said.

“This is a big victory. International donor agencies that funded dams have now reduced their funding by more than 90 percent. However, capitalist countries are still supporting dam construction.”

The movement has evolved since its early days. People demanding rights for the river have gone beyond the anti-dam movement.

“Rivers are not dead, they are not commodities, they are not for sale and purchase, they are living entities. They should be treated like living things and they should be provided personhood rights, like human beings,” he says.

In the past, the Indus flowed freely to the sea, he notes.

“Our state diverted the river with dams and cuts. The natural flow has ended and it has been restricted behind the dams,” says Shah.

Rivers whose flow is controlled are called controlled rivers. If you control the river behind dams, they are affected, and ecosystems and lives depending on rivers are affected.

“Our rulers say that Indus flowing to the sea means waste of water. In reality, this is the natural system, which is necessary for the river and the sea.”

He says they would not allow any diversions, cuts and dams over the Indus River. The existing structures, he says, should be modified so that natural flow of the river can resume and reaches the sea.

Hassan Abbas says that the situation of the Indus Delta, an effect of the Indus Basin Waters Treaty, is the worst example among environmental disasters in the world. Criticising the treaty, he says that it gave Pakistan nothing.

“The government is responsible for the restoration of the Indus delta but the rulers are not ready to accept it,” he says.

He says historically the Indus delta has been a source of freshwater.

“When you extract water from it, its culture will not remain the same. People have no means of livelihood in the Indus delta,” he says.

He also criticises the construction of dams as a solution to water supply woes.

“The world is dismantling dams. From 1995 to 2020, around 2,700 dams have been dismantled in the US. Of those, six dams were above 100 feet and one was above 200 feet. In Europe, a dam is being dismantled every 15 days. This is in the developed world. They made mistakes in constructing dams and they have recognised the effect of this disaster on nature, and the economy. They are restoring the natural flow of the rivers. We, in 2018, were creating dam funds,” he says.

“When the world is talking about free-flowing rivers, we need to accept the reality. Instead, we are focusing on [dam construction] loans.”

The International Day of Action for Rivers was celebrated on March 14

The writer is in-charge of    district reporting and a business reporter at The News International