Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) committee has questioned the Delhi Jal Board’s plan to clean up the Yamuna by building 14 new sewage treatment plants (STPs) and has called for the optimum utilisation of the exisiting ones instead.
The committee, which has submitted its report to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), has observed that the development of the proposed sites of STPs may take around “30- 40 years” and that several drains carrying wastewater are directly joining the Yamuna without their water being treated at any of the operational sewage plants.
“Waste water generation in Delhi has been assessed as 4,200 MlD (million litres per day) and the waste water treatment capacity developed so far is 3,059.48 MlD comprising 40 STPs.
“The capacity utilisation is only 63.46 per cent as the amount of waste water reaching STPs is only 1,941.67 MlD and 54 per cent of untreated sewage i.e. 2,259 MlD finds its way to the Yamuna and deteriorates its water quality,” the CPCB Committee, which was mandated by the NGT, has observed.
Citing the report, Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan has written to lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal underscoring the need for a “drastic change” in plans and an “overhaul” of DJB.