Remember former Delhi water minister Satyender Jain advancing the Yamuna River cleaning deadline to 2023 from 2025, followed by the former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal pushing it again to 2025. Recently, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena further extended it to 2026.
According to environmental activists, there is no dearth of funds but the only thing missing is the will to clean the river.
The central government has already granted over Rs 8,500 crore to the Delhi government for this mission. This is in addition to several thousand crores that have already been spent on the ailing river.
According to the reply to an RTI application filed by Delhi-based environment activist Amit Gupta, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) received over Rs 1,200 crore under the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) for Yamuna Action Plan III between 2018 and 2023. Despite all this, the dream to see Yamuna clean is still a distant one.
As no work with visible effect has been done, the experts believe that the time has come to take a few urgent steps.
Suggesting simple solutions, river scientist Faiyaz Khudsar, who is also the scientist-in-charge at Yamuna Biodiversity Park, said wetlands need to be identified on the Yamuna floodplain and they need to be restored in a way that they have substantial water.
“It (wetland) acts as a nursery of water. NGT suggests restoring the floodplain and leaving them alone without concretisation because, owing to the concretisation, the river is not able to treat itself.”
To prevent foam from forming in the river, he suggested that there is a need to check the detergent powder being sold to the consumers.
“We need to check the quality of detergent powder which is being used in washing powder and soaps which we are using—that is the main reason for the froth. In less froth too, clothes can be washed. Industries should be directed to not use ABC (a class of) chemicals. We need to have concrete policy decisions in place—that is the need of the hour.”
Encroachments
Bheem Singh Rawat, associate coordinator, South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), said, “DDA’s claims of no wetlands encroachment and recovering 477.79 hectares of the floodplain are questionable and misleading. DDA itself has allotted several hectares of Yamuna floodplain to various construction companies and has not been able to restore the degraded floodplain to its original ecosystem, including about 60-hectare Millennium bus depot floodplain land.”
“The legacy construction waste of bridges is still scattered in floodplains and riverbeds. The rubble, concrete mixtures and solid waste are being dumped in floodplains along the eastern embankments between ITO and Wazirabad barrage. DDA has not even cleared the waste left behind following the removal of some illegal settlements in the floodplain,” he added.
He also shared, “Presently, the Yamuna floodplain areas downstream, Delhi Noida, Greater Noida, Faridabad and Palwal have been undergoing large-scale encroachments in the form of farmhouses and unauthorised residential colonies. But the DoWR, RD & GR (Department of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation) and the parliamentary committee report have turned a blind eye to this.”
Flow in the river
The reduced water flow in Yamuna is the key factor behind the continuous degradation of the river and the failure of cleaning projects.
The release of 10 cumecs following NGT’s June 2015 order has not made any difference except for a little distance downstream of Hathni Kund Barrage in Haryana.
SANDRP, in its review report, had stated, “It is time for all the basin governments and decision makers to realise that unless at least 50 per cent of available water at Hathni Kund Barrage is not released in the Yamuna as environmental flows, the plans and projects to clean and protect the river will not achieve desired results.”
The DoWR, RD & GR submitted in Parliament in February this year that there are 50 industrial clusters of Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) in Yamuna main stem states (Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi) and 34 CETPs (Common Effluent Treatment Plants).
As per Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), out of 28 approved industrial areas in Delhi, 17 are connected with 13 CETPs and in the remaining 11 industrial areas, most units are either non-water polluting or have individual wastewater treatment facilities.
In February 2024, the parliamentary committee had asked the DoWR, RD & GR to persuade Delhi to carry out a study to assess the number of unauthorised industries operating in Delhi so that necessary arrangements may be made for regulating these industries and treating the industrial effluents generated from these industries.
Meanwhile, going by the CPCB, overall, there are 22 drains polluting the river in Delhi. Out of 22 drains in Delhi, nine have been trapped and two are partially trapped. The major drains of Najafgarh and Shahdara will be covered under interceptor sewage project.
'Foamy' Yamuna
Foaming incidents have become annual and they have been occurring at ITO and Okhla barrages during the winter season. According to the SANDRP, the foaming is caused by the accumulation of phosphates (sodium tri-poly-phosphate) and surfactants in the wastewater of the barrages. Release of this wastewater from barrages results in agitation of phosphoric compounds settled as sludge in riverbeds, which ultimately leads to the formation of foaming.
According to the experts, the primary reason behind the formation of the toxic foam is the high phosphate content in the wastewater because of detergents used in dyeing industries, dhobi ghats and households in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
The presence of these pollutants indicates the discharge of untreated or partially treated sewage or industrial effluents into the river. In stagnant conditions, this wastewater also causes the growth of water hyacinth in the pondage (small water storage) of Okhla barrage.
Exposure to foaming can cause skin irritation and infections. The eutrophication of the river surface prevents penetration of light and oxygen into water, resulting in the death of organisms.
In 2023, the Delhi government announced a five-point action plan to clean the Yamuna River. One of the plans was chemical dosing in the drain zones to reduce the phosphate content of the wastewater. Phosphate is one of the major pollutants that leads to foaming in the Yamuna.
In this regard, the parliamentary committee had put forth two recommendations:
1. Provision of creating a gentle slope or smooth discharge spillway at Okhla barrage to prevent turbulence and vertical fall of wastewater can address the foaming issue.
2. The DPCC completely prohibited the sale, storage, transportation and marketing of soaps and detergents in the NCT of Delhi which do not conform to the revised BIS Standards.
However, none of the recommendations have been effective enough since the frothing appears every year ahead of the festival and winter season.
AAP-BJP clash over Yamuna
Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva was admitted to a hospital last Saturday with complaints of itching and breathing difficulties, two days after he took a dip in the heavily polluted Yamuna to highlight the alleged failure of the AAP government to clean the river.
Sachdeva had taken a dip in the Yamuna at the Chhath Ghat and slammed former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for his “failure” to fulfil his promise to clean the river by 2025.
BJP MP Bansuri Swaraj said Sachdeva’s dip in the river has shaken the AAP government. "AAP’s deception on Yamuna cleanliness became evident when Sachdeva invited Kejriwal and Atishi to visit the Yamuna but neither showed up. The AAP government has done nothing except politicise the issue of Yamuna cleaning for the past decade."
Six spots where major concretisation has taken place
Surghat: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) reported that concrete structures, including bathing pools, changing rooms, administrative buildings, pathways, and a concrete road, were found at Surghat.
Vasudhev Ghat: Ghat (near Kashmiri Gate) and pathways were being built with red stones, comprising umbrellas and elephant statues with concrete at the base
Baansera: Established in August 2022, about 40% of the floodplain area has been concretised. Two water bodies have been restored but a boundary has been made. A cafe has also been opened. Marble statues and concrete structures are also present. The wetland has been converted into a dig point
PWD casting yard: Concrete components have been made over here. Built in 2009, during the Commonwealth Games and since then, it has not been removed. It also has a 12-foot-wide concrete road as well.
Delhi Metro casting yard near Signature Bridge
Asita East: 300-metre pathways are covered with paver blocks