Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday directed the concerned ministries and officials to work with a holistic approach for cleaning the Yamuna river, ensuring clean drinking water for the capital’s residents and upgrading the city’s sewage system.
This was conveyed at a meeting chaired by Shah and attended by Union Urban Development Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Union Jal Shakti Minister C R Paatil, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and senior officials, which lasted for about 90 minutes.
The Home Minister’s directions came on a day when Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) in its monthly assessment report, meanwhile, said Yamuna river at most places in the national capital fails to meet basic water quality standards.
On May 1, water samples were collected from eight monitoring points including — Palla, Wazirabad, ITO, Nizamuddin, Okhla and Asgarpur — which showed high concentrations of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and fecal coliform. According to the report, the higher concentration of BOD, COD and fecal coliform indicate severe organic and bacterial contamination.
The Union Home Minister held a meeting on the cleaning of the Yamuna, ensuring clean drinking water supply and improving sewage systems in Delhi, and he directed that the work be done with a holistic approach.
Addressing the meeting, Shah said the Yamuna is not just a river but also a symbol of faith, making its cleanliness a priority for the Modi Government. He said the Ministry of Jal Shakti should develop a standard operating procedure (SOP) for all sewage treatment plants (STPs), establishing standards for their quality, maintenance and discharge. The home minister emphasised that this SOP should also be shared with other states. He stressed that plans for the Yamuna, drinking water and drainage in Delhi should be made with a 20-year vision.
Shah highlighted the crucial role of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in cleaning the Yamuna and emphasised the need to strengthen it, directing immediate filling of vacant posts.
The home minister underscored the need to enhance Delhi’s water distribution efficiency, stating that effective water management is essential to ensure drinking water supply across the city. He said for water supply in Delhi, the DJB should strengthen the water distribution structure along with preventing leakage in pipelines. Shah also emphasised the use of world-class technology for desilting drains.
Talking to reporters after the meeting CM Gupta said it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to make Yamuna clean, right from its origin to its culmination point. “The Centre and the Delhi Government are committed to make Yamuna pollution-free. We are working on the segment of the river flowing through Delhi. “Officials of the Jal Shakti Ministry and Delhi government were present at the meeting. We are moving step-by-step towards the goal of a clean Yamuna,” the chief minister told reporters.
While DPCC in its assessment said BOD which reflects the amount of oxygen needed by bacteria to break down organic matter in water, were recorded at extremely high levels ranging from 4.0 milligrams per litre at Palla to 64.0 milligrams per litre downstream at Okhla. The permissible BOD level for Class ‘C’ water (designated for outdoor bathing) is only 3 milligrams per litre. It said that COD levels, which indicate the presence of oxidisable pollutants, peaked at 171 milligrams per litre at ITO Bridge — above the acceptable limit of 250 milligrams per litre for inland surface waters.
Fecal coliform levels, an indicator of sewage contamination, at the ITO Bridge reached 92,000 most probable number of microorganisms per 100 millilitres of a sample — nearly 37 times the maximum permissible limit of 2,500 MPN/100ml. Elevated coliform levels were also logged at all other downstream points, pointing to widespread sewage discharge and untreated waste entering the river, the report added.
Ammonical nitrogen, a marker of domestic and industrial waste-water, was also found to be in excess, with levels rising up to 5.75 milligrams per litre at Nizamuddin Bridge. The safe threshold for this parameter is typically below 1 milligrams per litre. The only relatively cleaner site was Palla, located upstream in north Delhi, where the Yamuna enters the city, it said.
The BJP-led Delhi government will install 32 real-time water quality monitoring stations to monitor the river water and the drains flowing into it.
Some of the Yamuna river sites where Monitoring Stations will be set up include Palla, ISBT Bridge, ITO Bridge, Nizamuddin Bridge, Okhla Barrage, etc. The major drains that will be included are Najafgarh, Metcalfe House, Khyber Pass, Sweeper Colony, along with some border drains that include Singhu Border (DD6, Sonepat), Bahadurgarh, Shahdara, Sahibabad and Banthia. These stations will monitor key pollutants, for instance, BOD (Biological Oxygen Demand), COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), TSS (Total Suspended Solids), along with Levels of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Ammonia.
The Yamuna cleaning project is already underway, where the treatment of sewage has begun. Delhi LG VK Saxena, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, and Minister Parvesh Verma are monitoring the procedure. The trio has regularly inspected major drains that also fall into the river.
In March, CM Gupta announced a comprehensive `1,500-crore plan to clean the Yamuna river and improve Delhi’s sewage infrastructure, an ambitious river rejuvenation effort in the National Capital.
