NEW DELHI: The cleaning of the Yamuna River in Delhi has begun following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pre-election promise. Even before the new government’s official formation, the cleaning of the Yamuna River in Delhi began on Sunday with modern machines like trash skimmers, weed harvesters, and dredgers deployed on Sunday near Signature Bridge and ITO to start the cleanup.
The action follows a meeting between Lt Governor VK Saxena and the Chief Secretary after which Saxena directed Irrigation and Flood Control department officials to act immediately. The LG’s office released videos showcasing the operation, emphasising waste removal from the river.
The initiative follows a four-pronged strategy which includes, removing accumulated waste, cleaning major drains like Najafgarh and supplementary drain, monitoring existing Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs), and constructing new STPs to address a 400 MGD treatment deficit. Multiple agencies, including the Delhi Jal Board, Municipal Corporation, Environment Department, PWD, and DDA, will coordinate efforts under weekly high-level monitoring.
Additionally, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has been tasked with ensuring industrial units do not discharge untreated wastewater into the river. However, experts say that merely cleaning the river is not enough. According to Bhim Singh Rawat, Associate Coordinator of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), cleaning the river using heavy machinery has been tried before without success. “It is a temporary solution, designed to grab attention,” he said.
He added, “From a scientific perspective, several key factors define the health of any river—its catchment area, tributaries, water flow and quality, aquatic and riparian biodiversity, floodplains, etc. However, over the past three decades, efforts to clean the Yamuna have been prioritised, while other crucial factors affecting the river—such as deforestation, the deterioration of its tributaries, excessive water extraction through dams and barrages, mechanised sand mining, and the decline of aquatic life—have received little attention.