On a Sunday morning in Chandranagar, while most of the city was still asleep, a group of volunteers was already knee-deep in the fight to save a dying river.
A River Gasping for Help
The Yagamso river, running through the heart of Arunachal Pradesh’s capital Itanagar, has long been on the receiving end of the city’s worst habits. On August 2, the Youth Mission for Clean River (YMCR) and the Abralow Memorial Multipurpose Society (AMMS), backed by the Itanagar Smart City Development Corporation Ltd (ISCDCL), decided enough was enough. Volunteers descended on the riverbanks and didn’t stop until they had pulled out a staggering 2,160 kg of waste — over two full tonnes — from the riverbed and its surrounding areas. That’s the weight of roughly two small cars, sitting in water that people once relied on.
The Audit That Told the Ugly Truth
What made this clean-up different wasn’t just the muscle. It was the mind behind it. After collecting the waste, organizers conducted a detailed waste audit — sorting through the garbage to understand exactly what was polluting the river and where it was coming from. The findings were uncomfortable but unsurprising. Single-use plastics, food packaging, construction debris, discarded clothing, and plain household garbage dominated the haul. In other words, people are treating a river like a dumping ground, and the river is running out of room to absorb it.
“We’re Not Just Cleaning — We’re Diagnosing”
YMCR vice-chairman Keyom Doni put it plainly. The audit, he said, allows the organisation to move beyond simply removing waste to understanding what is actually polluting the river — and why. That’s a crucial shift in thinking. Cleaning a river without addressing the root cause is like mopping a floor while the tap is still running. Doni stressed the urgent need for stronger public awareness and tighter waste management practices if the Yagamso ecosystem is to survive the pressure being put on it.
What Comes Next
The organisers aren’t treating this as a one-day event and moving on. Plans are already in place to hold similar clean-up drives regularly. The findings from the waste audit will be shared with local authorities and residents — a data-driven push to make people confront what their disposal habits are actually costing the environment. It’s the kind of community accountability that governments often promise and rarely deliver. These volunteers delivered it on a Sunday morning, without fanfare.
Rivers don’t beg for help. But 2,160 kilograms of someone else’s garbage speaks loudly enough. Itanagar’s people need to listen before the Yagamso stops flowing altogether.
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