By Restoring India’s Kham River, a City Revives Its Cultural Legacy

The Kham River in India, which flows through the city of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (formerly known as Aurangabad), fluctuates from a torrent during monsoon season to barely a trickle during dry months.

Years ago, the Kham provided drinking water to the city through a sophisticated system of stepwells and ancient aqueducts called Nahers that stored clean water in the water-scarce city. But over the past few decades, population growth, unmanaged waste and unregulated sand mining has turned the river into a major dumping ground and public health hazard.

"During my childhood, when I used to come here, the water of the Kham River was so clean we used to drink from it," says Asadullah Khan, a longtime resident and now officer on special duty for the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation, who is helping lead a restoration effort of the Kham. "I wish that all the people of Aurangabad should get clean and pure water as I used to get during my childhood."

Asadullah Khan, of the Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation, is helping to oversee restoration efforts of the Kham River. Photo by WRI.

The problem of legacy waste in seasonal urban rivers is not unique to Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: 21% of municipal waste in India goes unprocessed. The polluted water affects the health of people, livestock and wildlife.

"Nobody wanted to come here," relects Natasha Zarine, co-founder of EcoSattva, an environmental consulting firm in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. "Once you got to the bridge, you'd quickly accelerate away because of the stench and the filth. The river became a reflection of the worst side of us. It had our garbage and our sewage, our negligence, and a lack of governance."

Many residents were not even aware of the river's existence, and thought of it as a nallah, a sewage drain.

By 2020, the Kham reached a breaking point. So, a coalition of community and city-led groups launched a multi-pronged restoration initiative to revive the Kham's function as a river and ultimately lead a cultural revival as a key component of the city. Previously polluted sites have since turned into ecological parks (known as EcoParks) which now serve as community spaces and natural habitats.

The Kham is also now the first seasonal river in India to have an Urban River Management Plan through the River Cities Alliance, an initiative focused on the sustainable management of urban rivers. Since 2020, 54 acres of riparian zone have been restored, 25,000 households have begun benefiting from new waste collection and more than a million people have participated in waterfront educational and community events. What's more, the river has been flood-free for the past two years.

Initiating a Holistic Cleanup

The Kham River cleanup project started with a vision from the Varroc Foundation, which approached EcoSattva in 2020 to carry out data collection and research work. "We first undertook a six-month study just to understand what the river needed," says EcoSattva co-founder Gauri Mirashi of the scoping process. "After a lot of orthophoto surveys, understanding where the garbage is coming from, where the sewage is coming in from, what other challenges the river faces, we came up with a strategy."

Heavy machinery is used to excavate the riverbed of the Kham River, allowing water to flow more freely. A colorful bridge above is reinforced with fencing to prevent illegal dumping. Photo by WRI.

The team, together with a city-led special taskforce led by Khan, focused first on waste cleanup and dredging, which helped the river flow more freely and improved flood resilience during the monsoon season. The city also provided native plants and trees for planting along the riparian edge to revive the ecosystem, provide shade and create a native tree gallery, where visitors can learn about trees from each Indian state.

Ashok Jain looks for birds in the EcoPark, which is now flourishing because of the Kham River restoration efforts. Photo by WRI.

The improvements have been a boon for native flora and fauna and have helped renew appreciation for the local ecology. One resident, Ashok Jain, a mechanical engineer, has found a new hobby in birdwatching and photography - capturing pictures of 35 different bird species in the city and in the Riverside EcoPark, located in the historic Cantonment Area on the western edge of the city.

"I came here a year ago and I have been in love with this place," says Jain. "I visit here every day, but I never [feel] bored, I discover happiness every day."

Reimagining Waste Management

Once the Kham was clean again, the team needed to determine how to stop further pollution and waste from harming the river. Two immediate priorities stood out: preventing illegal dumping and connecting neighborhoods along the river to the city's formal sanitation system. The city's municipal corporation implemented infrastructural improvements that keep the river clean, such as physical barriers along bridges to block dumping, garbage traps to stop waste from moving down river and connecting homes to sewage pipes for sanitary diversion and treatment.

With a focus on equity and community engagement, EcoSattva developed the Unnati Waste Management Services in 2021, a commercial waste management service that employs and empowers Safai Saathis, or waste pickers, to improve waste management and reverse cultural norms around dumping. Safai Saathis, which translates to "Friends of Cleanliness" in Hindi, serve as the cornerstone of traditional waste management in many Indian cities. But as informal workers, Safai Saathis are often vulnerable to social exclusion, health risks and income uncertainty.

Through this initiative, Safai Saathis, many of whom are women, have received professional training and now work formally for the municipal government, providing them with a secure income and increased social visibility. More than 600 additional sanitation staff have also been integrated into municipal jobs such as daily neighborhood waste pickup services, not only reducing the amount of waste that ends up in the Kham but also fostering greater public awareness of recycling practices and helping to restore a cultural ethos around keeping seasonal rivers clean.

Daily waste pickups encourage solid waste sorting practices among residents in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar. Photo by WRI.

Reviving a Cultural Connection

Along with reformed waste management, EcoSattva and the municipal team identified and cleaned up 110 locations known as Garbage Vulnerable Points, where sources of solid waste pollution enter the river. They also converted many of the sites into pocket parks that celebrate native plants and art from the community. The Riverside EcoPark, which stretches 5 kilometers along the riverfront, now features three revived ponds, a safe walking path and an amphitheater for community gatherings built of recycled tires. The team reused materials whenever possible, and local residents were at the center of the project throughout every phase of decision making.

"This really is a community, municipal leadership, everyone coming together to fix what we had ourselves broken," says EcoSattva's Zarine. "And I think that has really brought out the best in all of us and in our city and in this beautiful place."

The Kham Riverside EcoPark provides outdoor amenities for schoolchildren and community events such as yoga, birdwatching, nature walks and more. Photo by WRI.

The restoration initiative has intentionally sought to revive cultural connections to the Kham River, too. A local band's "Kham Song" became an anthem for the river cleanup initiative, and residents affectionately refer to the river as Aapli Kham, or Our Kham. Schoolchildren regularly go on birdwatching tours and biodiversity walks, and women's groups have organized workshops and community activities.

The Kham River, historically revered as a sacred lifeline from its 400-year-old Naher aqueduct system, is now at the center of rising ambition for local river restoration projects and is inspiring citizens to recognize the river as a living entity, intertwined with the community's cultural fabric.

The Kham River is now the first seasonal river not connected to the Ganges River to have a formal management framework that will ensure the restoration efforts keep the river clean. Photo by WRI.

Setting a New Example for India's Rivers

The Kham River Restoration Initiative demonstrates how a social-ecological approach to waterway management can transform cities and improve lives.

It has dramatically reduced environmental degradation and flood risk along the Kham River. And as the first river in India not connected to the glacier-fed perennial Ganges River to have an Urban River Management Plan, the Kham is setting a precedent for smaller-scale and seasonal rivers to create formal management frameworks. These plans also expand cleanup work to other bodies of water at the regional basin-level, beyond municipal bounds.

For Khan, who remembers the Kham River from his youth, leading the restoration initiative has provided a renewed hope and purpose: "I feel proud because this is environmental work, and doing this satisfies my soul."

The 2023-2024 WRI Ross Center Prize for Cities celebrates projects and initiatives building momentum for climate-ready communities. From five finalists, one grand prize winner will be announced Sept. 25.