Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit inaugurated the country's first ‘Water and Wastewater Gallery' at the National Science Centre here on Tuesday.
The state-of-the-art gallery is an initiative of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and has been built in collaboration with the NSC. Through the use of over 30 displays including illustrative panels, interactive kiosks, live models and documentaries on water supply, sewerage and river environment, the gallery aims at enforcing water conservation.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms. Dikshit said the gallery will play a crucial role in creating awareness about the importance of water as a scarce resource. She said the gallery will aid in educating and awakening the people to the need for water conservation and in bringing about abatement of pollution in the river Yamuna.
Exhorting the city to keep the Yamuna clean, Ms. Dikshit said, “A dirty Yamuna leads to a dirty Delhi”. She called for a paradigm shift of thought, to conserving water and protecting it.
Part of the ongoing campaign for abatement of pollution in river Yamuna and water conservation under Yamuna Action Plan II (YAP II), a bilateral project between India and Japan, the gallery has been built in keeping with the international standards.
Chief Executive Officer of DJB Ramesh Negi said: “The onus to keep Yamuna clean and Delhi green lies in our participative efforts to stop polluting the river and of using water judiciously."
Sinichi Yamanaka, the India representative for Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) which has provided financial assistance for the project, hoped that “the implementation of such efforts will necessarily bring about considerable progress in the day-to-day life of the urban population, thereby bringing both Japan and India closer.”
“The focus of the Gallery is to educate and entertain the visitors and elicit a response towards water conservation and abating pollution in Yamuna. It will also portray and explain the effects of water supply constraints and development of sewerage networks, main causes of pollution of water bodies, and efforts made by the DJB under Yamuna Action Plan-II and other major projects,” said a Board spokesperson.
