More than Rs.1,500 crore spent over the past two decades to clean the Yamuna, which meets 70 per cent of Delhis daily water needs, has all been a waste. A latest Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) report says the polluted length of the river has increased from 500km to 600km. The Yamunas polluted stretch was about 500km - from Wazirabad in Delhi Juhika in the rivers downstream near Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, according to CPCBs 2010 data. But latest data show the pollution now starts from Panipat in Haryana, almost 100km upstream of Wazirabad. The efforts of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi to improve the quality of Yamunas water are not showing any results, says the report obtained by Manoj Mishra of NGO Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan in response to an RTI Right to Information) query. The report, submitted as an affidavit before the Supreme Court the CPCB, says all parameters used to test water quality indicate the Yamunas water from Panipat to Agra contains high levels of pollutants. This stretch was believed to be clean and pollution-free till recently. Dissolved oxygen (DO) levels, necessary to support aquatic life, range between 0.0 mg/ l and 3.7 mg/ l the Yamuna from Wazirabad Barrage in Delhi to Agra. The minimum should be 4.0 mg/ l. Biochemical oxygen demand BOD) levels, a key measure of water pollution, have increased between Panipat and Agra, thanks to hundreds of drains that dump untreated sewage in the river. The BOD concentration in this stretch has been found to be 4.99 mg/ l against the permissible 3 mg/ l or less. Ammonia, which is toxic to fish and other aquatic life, is present in high levels between Nizamuddin Bridge and Agra. Coliform bacteria levels, a pointer of bacterial pollution in a river, too have increased between Panipat and Agra. Mishra warned a direct consequence of the latest CPCB findings will be that the water flowing out of taps in Delhi homes would be dirtier than before. Treating such water will naturally require more effort, he said. The warning comes days after a Municipal Corporation of Delhi MCD) study found that drinking water supplied to most Delhiites was contaminated with sewage water. A shocking 81 out of 116 samples of water - it translates to almost 70 per cent - supplied across the Capital by the DJB failed MCDRss purity test. The CPCB has identified two critically polluted stretches of the river - one from Wazirabad to Okhla in Delhi and the other from Majawali to Juhika in Uttar Pradesh. Discharge of untreated sewage into the Yamuna is one of the main culprits polluting the river. Delhi generates approximately 600 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage, while it has an installed capacity to treat approximately 512.4 MGD of waste. Nearly 58 per cent of the total sewage generated by the city is dumped in the Yamuna, emptied into the river by 22 drains between Wazirabad Barrage and Okhla Barrage. Environment activist Rajender Singh, fondly called watermanRs for his pioneering work in cleaning up the countryRss polluted rivers, warned that sub- surface and underground water in Delhi and other cities along the Yamuna were getting polluted because of rising pollution in the river. A societys health is linked with a riverRss health and if you want to save the economy, then you must save the rivers, he said. We have no control over rapid urbanisation, which throws up more and more sewage. But the government has also failed in treating the waste. The existing treatment plants remain underused because of technical deficiencies, he added. Sunita Narain of the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE), however, felt the rising pollution in the Yamuna may not affect the quality of drinking water in the city, which uses water upstream of Delhi. But she warned it will affect the groundwater quality, which is also one of the sources of drinking water. She cautioned that people of other cities like Faridabad would be more affected by a dirtier Yamuna. Since 1993, the Centre has spent more than Rs.1,500 crore under the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) I and II to clean the river unsuccessfully. The first phase was launched after a study by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. It covered Delhi, eight towns in Uttar Pradesh and six towns in Haryana. Under YAP II, the 22km stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi, one of the dirtiest, was taken up. In the next phase, the government plans to spend another Rs.5,300 crore to clean the river. Read more at: indiatoday.intoday.in/story/clean-yamuna-mission-fails-panipat-delhi-stretch-most-polluted/1/199976.html
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 13:21:25 +0000
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