Sea ingress invades Narmada up to 80 km due to 'failure' to address climate change

By Our Representative
Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar, launching a youth led campaign, Towards a Better World, has called upon youth to change lifestyle and sources of livelihood for a sustainable and just development, underlining, even though everyone agrees climate change is a big issue, internationally our governments are not acting on climate emergency.
Addressing Fridays For Future, a global movement led by Greta Thunberg, in which several youth activists took part, Patkar exhorted the youth to fight against killing, destruction and exploitation of nature whose damage is irreversible, adding, this happens when rivers are polluted, groundwater is extracted to an extent that aquifers are also emptied, when glaciers are coming down, and even the agriculture land is being diverted and food security is lost.
Referring to the impact of Narmada dam on the Narmada river in Gujarat, Patkar regretted, without the river flowing, the sea cannot be stopped from coming in. Sea ingress has invaded Narmada river up to 50-80 km during the last few years, destroying agriculture and livelihood.

Asking youth to follow Gandhiji’s path of simplicity for just and sustainable development, Patkar said, if we follow the Gandhian path then lifestyle changes will have to be based upon his conclusion that the earth has enough to fulfill everyone’s need but no one’s greed.
Among those who spoke on the occasion include include Abhay Jain, a graduate of Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and an aspiring fair-trade entrepreneur, noted socialist Anand Vardhan Singh, Ariadne Papatheodorou and Ayesha Imtiaz16 years old climate activists from Fridays For Future from Greece and Pakistan respectively.

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