Pollution of rivers and oceans and depletion of deltas and rise in sea levels are a universal phenomenon with watercourses in America, Italy, Indonesia, The Philippines, Argentina, China, Bangladesh, Egypt, and other countries around the globe getting more toxic by the day. India and Jaipur, the capital of Indian state Rajasthan, are no exceptions to it. Jaipur’s Dravyavati River has over the years turned into a drain. Therefore, when Dravyavati River Rejuvenation Project was launched in 2016, it was a cynosure of all eyes, with teams from states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Telangana, and even some foreign countries visiting the pink city to understand the initiative and replicate it in their territories. A team from the Varanasi Municipal Corporation, part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s parliamentary constituency, inspected the project helmed by Tata Projects in 2018 to assess whether and how it could support their mission of cleaning the Ganga and its tributaries. Tata Projects established five Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), spaced approximately 9 km apart, to treat domestic waste and industrial effluents entering the river during its 50-km course before merging with the Dhund River. The STPs were intended to process the sewage and effluents and release treated water into the downstream stretch of the river. While Tata Projects aimed to restore the Dravyavati (also known as Amanishah Nala) as a source of clean perennial water, the then state government led by Vasundhara Raje planned a complementary riverfront development. This case study explores why and how domestic waste from urban sprawls and sporadic industrial activity transformed Dravyavati—once considered the lifeline of Jaipur—into a stinking drain, and why even a well-intentioned private enterprise like Tata Projects has not yet succeeded in rejuvenating the river.