Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Chairman Manish Sisodia has given administrative approval to projects worth ₹570 crore to ensure “pollution free Yamuna by 2025”, the Delhi government said on Wednesday.
Funds for these projects were allocated in the 2022-23 budget. Tenders for the project will now be issued by the DJB for these projects, officials said.
Over the years, hundreds of crores have been spent on cleaning the river’s Delhi stretch. But the water in this stretch is still not even fit for bathing during most of the year, except for Palla — the point where the river enters Delhi — according to the Delhi government’s own data.
In the Delhi government’s 2022-23 budget, a sum of ₹6,710 crore was allocated for “water supply and sanitation”, which was 104% more than the sum allocated in the previous budget — ₹3,274 crore.
Though only about 2% of the 1,400 km river flows between Wazirabad and Okhla in Delhi, the city accounts for 76% of the pollution load on the river, as per the erstwhile Yamuna Monitoring Committee formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The projects approved by Mr. Sisodia include the construction of decentralised sewage treatment plants in several areas of Bawana and Mundka and laying of sewer lines in various unauthorized colonies and rural areas of Delhi, and the construction of 2 MGD (Million Gallons per Day) wastewater treatment plants at Bawana, an official statement said on Wednesday.
