Nearly ₹6,856.91 crore was spent over five years, from 2017-21, to clean the Delhi stretch of river Yamuna, the Environment Department said in response (dated March 22) to a question raised in the Assembly.
However, as per reports of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), most of this stretch remains polluted for nearly the entire year and is not even fit for bathing. The DPCC’s February report also stated that faecal coliform (microbes from human and animal excreta) found in the river was beyond the “desirable level” at all points except for Palla — where the river enters Delhi. The faecal coliform level was as high as 500 times the desirable level at the point where the river exits the city, as per the DPCC data.
Also Read | Cleaning the Yamuna: A story of missed deadlines
CM’s promise
On January 19, 2020, in the run up to the Assembly election, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a 10-point guarantee card and said: “The Yamuna will be cleaned and made pollution-free. We promise that after five years, anyone will be able to take a dip in the Yamuna without fear of diseases due to dirty water.”
During the budget session last month, Mr. Kejriwal reiterated that he will take a dip in the river before the next Assembly election.
Manoj Misra, convener of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, a civil society initiative for the river’s rejuvenation, said the rejuvenation of the Yamuna depends on three things.
“One, a single agency should be responsible for the rejuvenation to ensure accountability. Second, increasing the natural flow of the river has to be prioritised. Third, the floodplains should be protected. No developmental work should be allowed on them and they should be restored in an ecological manner,” he said.
In a judgment on January 13, 2015, on a case filed by Mr. Misra, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) formed the ‘Maily se nirmal Yamuna’(from dirty to clean Yamuna) Revitalisation Plan, 2017’, which was set to be completed by March 31, 2017.
But as this objective was not achieved, the NGT formed a monitoring committee to implement its judgment. Though only 2% of the 1,400-km-long Yamuna flows between Wazirabad and Okhla in Delhi, it constitutes 76% of the pollution load of the river, as per one of the reports of the committee.
