Organisers said the walk aimed to highlight the ecological collapse of the Ravi, the rapid loss of Lahore’s green cover, and increasing threats to livelihoods, food systems, and public health in riverine communities.
They said the Ravi, once considered the lifeline of Punjab, now receives untreated sewage, industrial waste, and solid garbage from Lahore. Communities living along the riverbanks, including farmers and agricultural workers, are being directly exposed to polluted water. Medical observations and field reports have linked river contamination to serious diseases such as cancer and Hepatitis C, raising concerns over environmental injustice and public health.
Activists warned that large-scale real estate and riverfront development projects along the Ravi have intensified ecological degradation and social displacement. They said these projects risk converting vast areas of fertile farmland, threatening local food systems and the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and river-dependent families.
They added that interventions such as altering the river’s natural flow and removing green buffers were weakening an ecosystem that has supported agriculture, biodiversity, and human settlements for centuries. The loss of trees, wetlands, and green spaces, they said, is increasing climate vulnerability, air pollution, groundwater depletion, and food insecurity in Lahore.
The organisers also pointed to historical water management policies, including the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960, which they said significantly reduced the natural flow of eastern rivers like the Ravi, leaving them more vulnerable to pollution and overdevelopment.
Participants of the yatra stressed the need to revisit water-sharing frameworks in light of climate change, environmental collapse, and the rights of river-dependent communities.
“The Ravi carries our history, memory, and living relationship with water. When a river is polluted, controlled, and turned into a development corridor, we lose ecology, culture, and the right to a shared future,” an organiser said.
Citizens from various walks of life, including students, teachers, farmers, lawyers, artists, workers, doctors, boatmen, and environmental activists, took part in the walk to show solidarity for the Ravi, Lahore’s green cover, and the right to clean water, food, and air.
