Editor Mr.Mayank Rawat ( Chief Editor Mr. Rohit Mishra )
New Delhi: The Centre for Science and Environmentreleased an agenda report on cleaning the Yamuna in Delhi on Thursday. It suggests that the authorities accept the reality of missing data, reset the current plan and explore a different approach, including curbing the contamination of the Najafgarh and Shahdara drains.The report, titled ‘Yamuna: The Agenda for Cleaning the River’, emphasised the importance of determining the actual volume of sewage being generated in the city rather than relying on estimations.It also prioritised addressing the large areas still not connected to the sewage network and advised against releasing treated water into the drains.Sunita Narain, director general, CSE, pointed out that while the 22km stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi was merely 2% of the total river, this portion accounted for 80% of the pollution in the river. Though she appreciated the attention the Yamuna was getting, including of the Prime Minister, Narain noted several lacunae in the current plan. She said that while there were 22 drains with outfalls in the river, the Najafgarh and Shahdara drains were responsible for 84% of the total pollution in Delhi.Saying that the plans for cleaning the Yamuna revolved around the same elements — building sewage-related infrastructure, improving capacities of sewage treatment plants, interceptor drains, treating industrial waste, etc — Narain said, “It’s time to reset the plan.” She also cited a Delhi Pollution Control Committee report that claimed the city had the capability to treat its wastewater.CSE further flagged several discrepancies in data, like wastewater generation, faecal desludging, water being consumed in the city, even the population to assess per capita daily consumption of water. “Wastewater is estimated as 80% of supplied water. The problem is that we don’t know for sure how much wastewater is being generated since there is no clear data on Delhi’s population or the amount of water being supplied through tankers or from groundwater sources,” said Narain. “Govt also accepts a 40-60% loss during supply, which means there is no idea of how much sewage is being generated.”Narain said, “Accept this reality so that we can devise a proper plan.” The CSE report said that despite actions like increasing STP capacities, installing interceptor drains, laying sewage pipelines in unauthorised colonies and controlling industrial pollution, Yamuna continued to be contaminated.CSE suggested prioritising five points to clean the Yamuna, starting with tapping the faecal sludge, while asserting that the state need not invest in building and refurbishing costly sewage pipelines as managing faecal sludge using tankers was faster and more cost-effective. The key, however, is to ensure that all desludging tankers were registered and their movement is monitored to ensure all septage was taken to treatment plants. CSE said that vast areas in Delhi depended on desludging tankers for removal of excreta and these vehicles discharged their load into the river or drains.CSE also said that currently 10-14% of treated water was reused and urged not mixing the treated and untreated wastewater by discharging them into drains. It also recommended reworking the plan for Najafgarh and Shahdara drains, with the report stating that the “interceptor drain plan is not working for these two drains; despite investment, pollution is increasing. Delhi needs to rework and focus on drains that contribute the bulk of pollution into the river”.
Mayank Rawat
