The Prime Minister in a speech some months ago very rightly remarked that “future generations will not forgive us for the manner in which we have treated our water”. It would be really nice if this concern was also extended to the plight of India’s last remaining free-flowing streams and rivers. The dominant paradigm is that rivers which flow freely all the way to their estuaries and deltas do not serve any purpose and one often hears politicians and bureaucrats stating that so much water is going “waste” into the Arabian Sea. The ecosystem functions, ecosystem services and livelihoods that rivers and streams provide to communities is rarely mentioned.