Kota Students Clean Lakes and Rivers Every Weekend

Every Sunday morning at Jait Sagar Lake in Kota, something remarkable happens. Students and young professionals gather at the water's edge, pull on gloves, and wade into polluted waters to pull out trash by hand.

They're part of Kota Community, a volunteer network that's spent three years cleaning Rajasthan's forgotten water bodies. The group has organized 75 cleanup drives across 30 temples and 45 public spaces around the city.

Rajasthan's relationship with water runs deep. For centuries, the state's lakes, stepwells, and ponds determined where communities could survive in the desert heat. These structures weren't just wells but engineering marvels that stored rainwater, cooled neighborhoods, and served as gathering spaces.

Modern water systems pushed many into disuse. Today, nearly 21 percent of Rajasthan's 16,939 water bodies sit abandoned, choked with plastic and sewage.

At places like Jait Sagar Lake and Sukh Mahal, an 18th-century palace, volunteers crouch near ancient steps pulling soggy packets and bottles from the lakebed. Some weekends they clear the banks of the Chambal River. Other times they unclog historic stepwells or arrange water for birds during harsh summer months.

The volunteers coordinate with city officials to ensure collected waste gets properly disposed of or composted. They also talk to residents about reducing plastic bag use.

The Ripple Effect

One stepwell can't be restored in a single morning. But when neighbors watch young people regularly show up to clean spaces everyone thought were lost, something shifts.

Public neglect becomes visible. Forgotten water bodies stop being invisible. The repeated act of caring creates a sense that these historic spaces belong to everyone, not just the government.

The volunteers are mostly students and office workers who could spend Sunday mornings sleeping in. Instead, they return home dirty, exhausted, and smelling of lake water.

And the next Sunday, they show up again.