Mangaluru : At a time when climate change has become a major issue of debate the world over, Mangaluru too played a small part by hosting a state-level conference on environment at Tannirbhavi tree park on Sunday March 1.

Altogether 36 major issues were discussed during the conference, one among them being pollution of rivers in Dakshina Kannada district.

NECF member Gopika raised concerns over the polluted rivers in the district and urged the government to take necessary steps to prevent dumping of waste into the rivers. She also urged action against release of untreated effluents into the river.

“A lot of waste is entering into the rivers at various points and contaminating the water. As a result, water bodies and organisms that live in them are also getting harmed. We can also notice that several liquor bottles are also dumped in the river,” she said.

NECF general secretary H Shashidhar Shetty stressed on the contamination of rivers by construction activity in the city, and said, “Construction waste is being dumped into the water as there is no proper policy for its disposal. There are several instances where water resources are being levelled for the construction of buildings.”

Activist Dinesh Holla said, “The severe damage caused to water resources like Netravati and Phalguni in the Western Ghats has led to landslides in Beltangady taluk.”

Senior assistant director, Coastal Regulatory Zone, U Mahesh Kumar, said, “As many as three lorries have been booked by the RTO for dumping construction waste into the river. Students of School of Social Work, Roshni Nilaya have conducted awareness campaign by cleaning the river bed in Ullal, and urged other colleges to follow the same.”

Activist Suma Nayak, activist Ravindranath Shanbhag, Padmashree awardees Tulasi Gowda and Sukri Bommagowda and activist Diego Bastav Siddi were also present.