Revive our rivers

A couple of months ago, a high court in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand handed down a unique verdict on two of India’s holiest rivers. The Ganga and the Yamuna were declared “living entities”, thus acquiring the status of a legal person. Under the verdict, polluting these rivers is tantamount to harming a human being. This landmark ruling is an important institutional step toward fighting severe pollution of river waters and surroundings.

Proof will no longer be required that discharging waste harms any individual person, since polluting the waters will be a crime against the river itself. The judgment on the Ganga and the Yamuna follows a bill passed by the New Zealand parliament declaring the Whanganui River as a legal person. The law was welcomed by the members of local Iwi tribe, which have a deep spiritual connection to the Whanganui. Historically, rivers have nurtured the emergence of civilizations... — blog.adb.org/blogs