Amid reports of frothing in the Yamuna River, Delhi Jal Board Vice Chairman Raghav Chadha expressed his anguish at the Uttar Pradesh and Haryana Governments, saying that they must play their role to ensure water gets treated before being released in the river.
In a statement, the DJB Vice Chairman said, “It appears that the governments of UP and Haryana are not bothered about releasing untreated wastewater into Yamuna.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has been constantly working to further enhance and augment its ‘Sewage Treatment Plant’ (STP) capacities so that untreated effluents are not released into the Yamuna,” he said.
Explaining how the frothing is taking place because of UP Irrigation Department’s carelessness, Chadha said, “The Okhla Barrage is under the UP Irrigation department, and because of its lackadaisical attitude, water hyacinth plants grow all around. One needs to understand that when these hyacinth plants decompose, they release surfactants like phosphates.”
Chadha also said, “When this water, filled with huge amounts of surfactants like phosphates, falls in Kalindi Kunj from a height, it produces foam, which gradually accumulates and floats on the surface of the water. This foam gets difficult to remove.”
Elaborating on further causes of foaming and frothing of River Yamuna, the Vice Chairman said, “Apart from this, the paper and sugar industries operating in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh also release untreated wastewater containing surfactants, which is then released into Yamuna through the Hindon Canal at Okhla Barrage near Indira Kunj. This causes foam to grow and accumulate in the Yamuna.”
“UP’s untreated dirty water reaches Delhi through Shahdara drain and Haryana’s untreated dirty water reaches us through Najafgarh drain. Both combined cause immense water pollution in Okhla Barrage. DJB has been continuously working on treating sewage and releasing treated effluents into the Yamuna River through its state-of-the-art sewage treatment plants. This is not Delhi’s problem alone, and we will need cooperation from Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to keep the Yamuna clean,” he added.
Delhi Jal Board has, in the past, apprised the NGT-appointed Yamuna Monitoring Committee (YMC), regarding the surfactants like phosphates released by the large number of water hyacinths in the Okhla Barrage maintained by the UP Irrigation Department. In addition, the YMC has also been apprised of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana releasing approximately 150 MGD of untreated wastewater into Yamuna, the DJB said in a statement.
The DJB is leaving no stone unturned in bettering its sewage treatment capacity, on the other hand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh often release untreated water in Yamuna, causing it to become increasingly polluted, he said.