Question Of Cities

Water supply was shut down every Saturday in many parts of Nashik this May, something that has not happened in about 20 years. The lack of respect for the Godavari River and its unmonitored overuse was one reason; the other was the over-exploitation of groundwater.

The Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) brought in rules and regulations in the past ten years to check the over-exploitation of groundwater but has been tardy in implementing them.

To tide over the situation of low rainfall and lack of water in the Godavari for the Kumbh Mela, the authorities have invested in a 25-kilometre pipeline and a hydraulic system to pump the water upwards from a lower point – hardly a sustainable system for the city.

The way forward is a return to the ancient approach – respect the river, understand how it moves, restore its natural conditions, protect its tributaries – while allowing groundwater to be recharged and not taking away the river’s land by Development Plans or policy.

Read the full essay by Prajakta Baste through the link in bio.

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[Nashik, Godavari, groundwater, ramkund, kumbhmela, Maharashtra, maha kumbh]

In the poem ‘Godavari’ by VV Shirwadkar, popularly known and revered by his pen name ‘Kusumagraj,’ the river asks how to move forward. Kusumagraj, among the greatest of Marathi poets, playwrights, and litterateurs, and awarded the prestigious Jnanpith and Sahitya Natak Academy awards for his stupendous work, had made Nashik – and the banks of Godavari – his home. The poem goes: 

Godavari kathavar baslo hoto ekdha,

Panyaat pahile tevha disle swatahcha chehra.

Nadi mhanali – tu hi vaahatos mazhyasarkha,

Ghava sosun pudhe jaane haach marg sange sakha. 

(Once, sitting on the banks of Godavari

I peered into the water, saw my face.

The river said – you too flow like me, 

tell me, my friend

how to endure a blow and stream forward.)

As Nashik, and the river that has defined the city for centuries, prepare to host the Simhastha Kumbh Mela in less than six months, the Godavari meanders through historical landmarks, struggling to flow in places and stagnant in others, human-caused pollution and policy-driven concretisation impeding its flow. Like it asked the poet ‘how to endure a blow and stream forward,’ it now asks the question of the Maharashtra government, the authorities in Nashik, and the people of the ancient city. Worshipped but neglected from one Kumbh Mela to the next 12 years apart, the Godavari is asking to be heard and accounted for in the city’s development, respected and restored beyond the event. Question of Cities journeys to Nashik, walks along the river banks, takes in Panchvati and Ramkund, and asks why the Godavari cannot be revived in ecologically sustainable ways.  

Read all our stories through the link in bio.

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[Godavari, Godavari River, Kumbh Mela 2027, Simhastha Kumbh Mela, riverfront development, Nashik, panchavati, ramkund, tapovan]