At the edge of Jait Sagar Lake in Kota, the morning begins with the chatter of a group of young volunteers moving along the waterline near Sukh Mahal, the 18th-century palace once associated with Rudyard Kipling’sKim.

Some crouch near the steps, pulling soggy packets and bottles from the lakebed. Others drag nets through dark water thick with floating waste.

For the volunteers of Kota Community, this is not a symbolic clean-up. It is an attempt to rescue Rajasthan’s relationship with water.

Across Rajasthan, lakes, baoris (stepwells), ponds, and ghats once determined where settlements could survive. In a state where water has always shaped daily life, these structures were engineered as systems of survival as much as architecture. Today, many lie abandoned under layers of plastic, sewage, and neglect.

Kota’s youth are trying to reverse that decline, one clean-up drive at a time.

Cleaning the water, reclaiming the city

The recent drive at Jait Sagar and Sukh Mahal brought together volunteers from Kota Community and Kota Hike. Gloves snapped over eager hands as students and working professionals spent hours clearing litter........

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