World Water Day | River restoration: Inspiring stories of change

The comeback pathway of the Chicago River

During the industrial boom in the 1800s, the Chicago River became really polluted. Waste from factories and raw sewage flowed straight into the river. Thus, overtime the water became unsafe for people and wildlife.

Chicago River.
| Photo Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

A Chicago based non-profit called the Urban Rivers, founded in 2013, decided to recover the Chicago River. Their biggest idea was called the Wild Mile and it was launched in 2016 with a pilot phase. It is a floating eco park built right on the Chicago River. They used floating rafts covered in plants which function like a natural wetland and span about 700 ft. These plants serve more than just looks! The roots of these plants grow down into the water and act like a filter. They detoxify the river by soaking up pollution and breaking it down into safer substances . Volunteers with the Urban Rivers called the River Rangers, head out in kayaks to pull rubbish out of the water and also keep an eye on the floating rafts to make sure the plants stay healthy and that invasive species or weeds don’t take over the habitat.

The Wild Mile floating park in Chicago.
| Photo Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Beneath the surface, another team works to cleanse the river. The Wild Mile project has successfully restored 5000 mussels to the river; a single mussel can filter up to 20 litres of water every day!

Because of these efforts the Wild Mile project is a success in bringing back a heavily industrial waterway back to life.

Snapping the fence to save the water

In the 1930’s, after several destructive floods, the city of Los Angeles made a major change to its river. The Army Corps of Engineers placed an 81km waterway inside a thick shell of concrete to control the water. In 1938, a tall chain link fence was put up to separate the public from the flood channel and nearby railroad tracks. For many years, most residents did not even realise a river existed in their city.

Channelised Los Angeles River.
| Photo Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

Lewis MacAdams, a poet and journalist, wanted to bring the river back to life. In 1985 and 1986, he and a few friends used wire cutters to snip holes in the chain link fence. This was a protest against the river being blocked off from people.

Following this act, MacAdams started a non-profit group called Friends of the Los Angeles River, or FoLAR, pushing for the river to be restored. He described the restoration as “a 40 year art piece”, viewing the project as a way to turn a concrete channel back into a living river through art, poetry and community work.

The river comeback.
| Photo Credit:
USFWS Pacific Southwest Region/FLICKR

MacAdams and his team organised cleanups to remove thousands of pounds of trash from the water. He focused on creating green spaces and restoring habitats so that plants and animals could live there again. By involving schools and residents in his mission, MacAdams changed how the city thought about the forgotten river. His efforts eventually helped win approval for a 1.6 billion dollar federal project. This plan aimed to restore nature, widen parts of the channel and build new wetlands and bike trails along an 17 km section of the river.

From biologically dead to thriving, the success story of Thames

The river Thames has one of the most successful recovery stories in history. It went from being a waterway declared “biologically dead” in the 1950s to one of the cleanest rivers in the world today. This massive change took decades of hard work and new laws.

River Thames.
| Photo Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

By 1858, industrial pollution and untreated sewage made the river smell so bad it was called the “The Great Stink”. It forced the parliament to take action. An engineer named Sir Joseph Bazalgette was hired to build underground sewers to move waste away from the city. By 1878 people realised that this wasn’t enough, because sewage was still being dumped into the water. By the mid 1950s, a 69 km stretch of the Thames had almost no oxygen, meaning it couldn’t support life. There were no fish at all in this section and it was officially declared “biologically dead.” In the 1960s, groups like the Port of London Authority began a major cleanup. They modernised how sewage was treated and set strict rules for the factories. By 1967, a fish called the Flounder became the first species to return, eventually 19 types of freshwater fish and 92 marine species followed.

Also Read | World Water Day | Are you water-conscious?

Aerial view.
| Photo Credit:
Unsplash Images

The focus then shifted to keeping the oxygen levels high. The Thames Water Authority even used special boats called “Thames Bubblers” to pump air into the water. A major victory happened in the 1980s when salmon finally returned to the river. Today the impact is incredible, the Thames now supports 125 species of fish, and people use the river for swimming and rowing.

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Warriors of the Pasig River

In the Philippines, a 27 kilometre waterway called the Pasig River cuts right through the capital city of Manila. It was once a busy and vital route for trade, but over time, rapid urbanisation and poor sewage planning took a heavy toll. The river became so clogged with waste, turning into a major source of plastic pollution for the world’s oceans according to a 2021 report by Oxford University’s Our World in Data.

Washed-up garbage on the polluted Pasig River.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters

However, for over a decade, a dedicated group of people have been fighting to change this. They are known as the “River Warriors”. This group of about 100 people spends every morning raking up massive piles of trash along the riverbanks. They work endlessly to clear the thick layer of garbage that either floats in the stagnant water or washes up on the shore.

The warriors operate in small groups at different locations along the river. While they started out as a group of volunteers, their hard work is now recognised by the local government, which provides them with a basic income to continue their mission. Their daily labour stops huge amounts of waste from flowing out of the Pasig river and into the Manila Bay; these warriors continue to stand on the frontlines to protect the waterway.

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Cleaning up the Bronx River

As New York city’s only freshwater river, Bronx River was once a clean ecosystem known to the Lenape people as Aquahung. In its natural state, the river was home to beavers, oysters and herring. However during the 19th and 20th centuries, rapid urbanisation and industrialization changed the river significantly. Factories and households began using the waterway to dump waste, eventually turning it into a contaminated water channel often described as an “open sewer”.

Efforts to save the river began in 1974 when activist Ruth Anderberg founded the Bronx River Restoration Project. This community-led movement started the difficult process of cleaning up the water, with volunteers working to remove decades of accumulated garbage (tires and even sunken cars).

River Bronx.
| Photo Credit:
Wikimedia Commons

During the 1980s and 1990s, the project gained more support, leading to a Master Plan for a continuous greenway and by 1997, the Bronx River Working Group was formed, bringing together over 60 community organisations, public agencies, and businesses to reclaim the river and improve public access.

To encourage community participation, an outreach team organises events such as Bronx River Flotilla and the Golden Ball festival. The ongoing restoration of the Bronx River serves as a model for how community based efforts can transform a neglected industrial waterway into a sustainable natural resource.

(The author was an intern with The Hindu In School.)

Published – March 22, 2026 06:00 am IST