Seminar on ‘Jal Aaj Aur Kal’ by SOCLEEN in Vadodara

Focus on
water bodies and measure to improve their conditions

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SOCLEEN has
always been an organization working and committed to creating cleaner, greener
and pollution free environment in and around Vadodara. This time again they
comes up with same initiative of conserving and preservation of wetlands and
helping environment by making best use of water bodies and cleaning the same.

A conference
regarding the same topic has been organized by them on 8th of February,
Saturday in Vadodara. The dignitaries invited for the event are Jaydratsinhji
Parmar, Minister of Environment, Governnment of Gujarat, who will be the chief
guest, Bittu Sehgal, Environmentalist and Editor of Sanctuary Asia, Mumbai who
is going to deliver a keynote address for the event, Dr. B.N Navalawala,
Advisor to the Chief Minister on Water Resources, Government of Gujarat and
Mayor of Vadodara Dr. Jigeeshaben Sheth.

The United
Nations has declared 2nd of February as World Wetland Day since 1997. They
define wetlands as all the water bodies around the globe, and that mean a land
consisting of marshes and swamp. UN Secretary- General Ban- Ki Moon once quoted
“There is no ‘Plan B’, because we do not have a ‘Planet B’. We have to work and
galvanize our action.”

Supporting
his statement on sustainable development Dr. Sanjay Pandit, Vice President of
SOCLEEN managing committee said “What we can do is important for our water
bodies and how can we improve their condition and take action for the same is
more important.” He further said SOCLEEN believes in scientific solutions resulting
in sustainable development, rather than fighting or taking out rallies for the
same.

Dr. Sanjay
Pandit also said they have started the practical actions for their campaign in
Dumad village, on 2nd of February on World Wetland Day, where they have adopted
first among other villages of Vadodara district by cleaning the pond and area
around with help of 100 volunteers of the village itself and collected 85 kg of
plastic while cleaning. Around 1.8 tons of plastic was collected, which was
reused for making 12 garden benches and again the amount while selling was
given to the gram panchayat of the village itself. They have also targeted
primary and 50 government schools from 8 villages for their campaign. They are
working on the same by recent theme of the UN on wetland which is “Wetland And
Biodiversity.”

The event is
going to be held in two technical sessions. The first session would be held by
Dr. Sanskruti Majumdar and Dr. Deepa Gavali who would give understanding of
ground water scenario and suggested method of recharge along with wetland of
Vadodara and water resourse management. 

The second
session will have 3 case studies in form of success stories from India that is
from Chennai, Pune and Vadodara discussed by Arun Krishnamurthy, Manish
Ghorpode and Animesh Joshi, Mahavirsinh Mahida, Manthan Chudasma and Rajesh
Suthar respectively. The Vadodara western railway station being one of the
biggest western railway station, where a lot of water is used and many a times
wasted. A research paper on how it can be reused in form of case studies will
also be discussed in the event by SOCLEEN.

Organizations
and industries like Larsen and Tubro, Linde, have given a good support to the
event and also the campaign by SOCLEEN.