A Holy River Turned Toxic

Manu Bhatnagar, principal director, natural heritage division of
the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage explains
how migration too contributed to pollution.

Since the 1970s, a lot of migrant workers began settling in Delhi.
The banks of Yamuna were among the many settlements that housed
unauthorised colonies. “Without any proper sewage network, most of
the waste and sewage from these unauthorised colonies ended up in
small open drains, which flowed into larger storm water drains,
and finally ended up in Yamuna,” Mr. Bhatnagar says. Many
unregulated industries also came, whose untreated effluents also
ended up in Yamuna, he adds.

Currently, there are over 1,780 unauthorised colonies in the
national capital, as per the Delhi government.

In a written reply to Rajya Sabha during the Winter Session of
Parliament, the Jal Shakti Ministry said Delhi had a sewage
treatment gap of 414 Millions of Litres per Day (MLD).

Neighbouring States also contribute to the pollution of the Delhi
stretch of the river.

Six drains from Haryana flow into the Najafgarh drain, and four
major drains from Uttar Pradesh discharge into the Shahdara drain.

When festival and floods cleaned the river

The lack of adequate water in the riverbed is also a factor behind
a polluted Yamuna. Less water is available in the Delhi stretch of
the river, as most of the water is diverted to drinking and
agricultural purposes.

Yamuna water is diverted through the Western and Eastern Canals to
aid irrigation in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

Interestingly, during most monsoons, the floodwaters dilute
pollution and improve the river quality in Delhi. For instance,
August and September last year showed improvement in the water
quality, as the river was receiving heavy flow due to rainfall in
the upper reaches. It still did not meet the bathing standards.

But the very next month thousands of devotees from Purvanchal
region (who form about 30% of Delhi’s electorate) took a holy dip
in Yamuna during the Chhath Puja festivities held from October 25
to 28.

Just four days ahead of the festival, the Haryana government
nearly halted irrigation water releases and increased the release
of water into Yamuna from Hathnikund Barrage, around 200km
upstream, by 250 times.

The timing of water release coincided with the festival, thus
giving the river a relatively cleaner look by flushing out the
pollutants to an extent.

As soon as the four-day Chhath Puja concluded, the Haryana
government sharply reduced release of water, cutting the flow into
Yamuna by nearly 96%, according to data from the Central Water
Commission (CWC).

Consequently, in the following months, the Yamuna’s water quality
deteriorated. Fecal coliform levels in Delhi reached above 54,000
MPN/100 ml (over 108 times the desirable limit) in December.

Can Yamuna ever be clean?

Experts and activists have been insisting for years that cleaning
up Yamuna should focus on cleaning up the drains and increasing
the water flow in the river as it passes through Delhi.

“It is not rocket science to clean the river, but the criminal
apathy of both central and state governments over the years that
has led to the current situation,” says Mr. Thakkar.

The history of unsuccessful attempts at cleaning the river,
despite thousands of crores of rupees and legal scrutiny at the
topmost level, makes it a daunting task.

When hundreds of people jumped into the Seine River in the heart
of Paris, it was nothing short of historic – the river had
reopened to public swimming on July 5 last year for the first time
since 1923, after a century-long ban due to pollution.

Dr. Balakrishna Pisupati, head of United Nations Environment
Programme (India), says many European rivers such as the Seine,
Rhine and Thames were revived by focusing on treating the sewage
and industrial waste falling into the river and increasing the
flow.

“It took about 10 years of concentrated efforts and around 1.4
billion dollars to clean the Seine River,” he says, adding that
the clean-up drive involved strong monitoring of water quality and
pollutants by the government on a real-time basis.

There are elements India can learn from all these examples, and
there is hope for Yamuna, Mr. Pisupati says.

Last year, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stormed into power in
the national capital after 27 years with a promise that their
“triple engine government” will make Yamuna clean. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi began his victory speech chanting “Yamuna maiyya ki
jai [Hail mother Yamuna]”, while Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta
along with her cabinet colleagues performed Yamuna aarti as soon
as they were sworn in.

The new government has given the top priority for cleaning up
Yamuna. A plan presented to the Prime Minister in April is being
monitored by Home Minister Amit Shah almost every 45 days,
officials say.

In July, Mr. Shah directed the Delhi government to nearly double
its sewage treatment capacity from 764.2 million gallons per day
(MGD) to 1,500 MGD by 2028 to make sure that no untreated sewage
enters the Yamuna.

Under the new plan, apart from the sewage treatment, different
options, including diverting water from Ganga to dilute the
pollution in the Delhi stretch of Yamuna are being considered.

“Earlier, there was a lack of coordinated efforts and monitoring
at the highest level, even though courts were directing to do it,”
a senior central government official told The Hindu on why there
is a renewed hope now.

“Maa Yamuna is a symbol of our faith and existence. Keeping her
pure, flowing, and vibrant is our shared responsibility,” the
Delhi Chief Minister said during the launch of ₹1,816-crore Yamuna
clean-up and drinking water projects in the National Capital in
October.

However, Himanshu Thakkar of SANDRP is skeptical pointing out the
lack of accountability despite numerous court orders over the last
three decades to clean Yamuna. “If the river has to be cleaned,
governance has to be fixed and there should be accountability and
transparency,” Mr. Thakkar says, adding “with the current system
and situation, there is no hope in cleaning Yamuna.”

But the question remains: Can Delhi pull out a feat that Paris
did with Seine?