Once there was a river. Rather, there were many rivers. And then there were none.
In the run up to Arappor Iyakkam’s Sakkadai Thiruvizha, a citizen awareness program to highlight the problem of sewage being let into Chennai’s water bodies, two young photographers — Raghavan Lokesh and Mohan Kumar Karunakaran — volunteered to travel along Chennai’s rivers, and capture images for our readers.
The pictures are heart breaking. Let us take a minute to view, and mull over, what we have done to the lifelines of this city.
![](https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Chennai-WaterBodies-99-1024x683.jpg)
Birds fly over the Kosasthalaiyar in valiant bid to find something alive in the waters. Pic: Raghavan Lokesh
![](https://citizenmatters.in/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Chennai-WaterBodies-168-1024x683.jpg)
Cattle grazing on the bed of what is left of the Adyar river, behind MIOT Hospital. Pic: Raghavan Lokesh
[Raghavan Lokesh is an entrepreneur and has been volunteering with Arappor Iyakkam since 2017. Mohan Kumar Karunakaran works with Royal Bank of Scotland. Moved by the state of a water body in his neighbourhood, he has been volunteering with Arappor Iyakkam over the last few months, seeking to impact the city in a positive way.]