NEW DELHI: A group of military veterans on Tuesday demanded the establishment of a separate statutory body for cleaning the Yamuna river, which they claim is a “slow poison” for the people in the Delhi-NCR region. The group, “Atulya Ganga,” presented results of a survey evaluating the river’s health here, pointing out that the National Mission for Clean Ganga focuses on the Ganga and lacks efforts to clean other tributaries, including Yamuna.
Colonel (retd) Mike Keshwar said the Yamuna requires its own agency due to the significant cleaning task, as the Ganga’s cleanup itself is massive. The NMCG, established under an Act, aims to clean the Ganga and its tributaries. The Atulya Ganga team collected samples from 29 critical locations along the Yamunanagar- Prayagraj stretch, testing them on 16 parameters related to water quality, including pH, turbidity, hardness, chloride, chlorine, iron, fluorides, bacteria, dissolved oxygen and total dissolved solids.
Shockingly, only one sample was deemed “good,” while 12 were of fair quality and 17 were poor. One of the key parameters of the river’s health is the dissolved oxygen level, which is required to be four parts per million (PPM) or better. The samples showed that the dissolved oxygen level was less than one part per million (PPM), signifying severe pollution, the veterans said.
The group also aims to create a ‘Yamuna Health Dashboard’ using satellite data, remote sensing, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence. This will make a 24x7 “Water Quality Index of Rivers” available in the public domain which will be an effective tool to report the pollution levels, pinpoint the sources of contamination and drive accountability, said Lt Gen (retd) Alok Kler, CEO, Atulya Ganga. The Yamuna Health Dashboard will provide insights to policy makers, government, and non-governmental agencies to make informed decisions and create effective environmental policies, he said.
Water quality surveyed
The Atulya Ganga team collected samples from 29 critical locations along Yamunanagar- Prayagraj stretch, testing them on 16 parameters related to water quality, including pH