Money to be flushed down the drain to treat wastewater
After almost two decades and spending Rs 1,500 crore on cleaning the polluted Yamuna River, the project is still at a dead-end. Meanwhile, the high-level empowered committee set up by the lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung has suggested to launch more sewage and effluent treatment plants to avoid discharge of untreated wastewater into drains and eventually keep Yamuna clean. In its recommendations to lieutenant-Governor, the committee has suggested some short-term measures, including setting up more STPs/ETPs, installing of online monitoring systems and CCTV cameras over river Yamuna. The recommendations also include construction of boundary walls/wire meshes along the drains, increase the number of dhalaos so that solid waste is not dumped in drains.
Delhi generates approximately 600 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage, while it has an installed capacity to treat approximately 512.4 MGD of waste. However, nearly 58 per cent of the total sewage generated by the city is dumped in the Yamuna by 22 drains between Wazirabad and Okhla Barrage.
“The Delhi Jal Board (DJB), DSIIDC, Industry Department and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) have to ensure maximum treatment of sewage/effluents so as to avoid discharge of untreated wastewater into drains and Yamuna River. The DPCC has already issued directions for installing online monitoring systems and CCTV cameras over drains and river,” the committee recommended.
On dumping the solid waste in drains, the committee recommended that the civic bodies, apart from construction of boundary walls/wire meshes along the drains, should also increase the number of dhalaos so that solid waste is not dumped in drains.
“The DJB has been asked to list out and publicise the STPs where treated wastewater is available for utilisation and ensure that the departments — like DJB, horticulture, DDA, PWD, NDMC, Delhi Parks and Gardens Society — use this wastewater for irrigation,” the committee recommended.
The Municipal Corporation of Delhi MCD) study in 2011 found that drinking water supplied to most Delhiites was contaminated with sewage water. However, a shocking 81 out of 116 samples of water — almost 70 per cent — is supplied across the Capital by the DJB failed MCD’s purity test. Since 1993, the Centre has spent more than Rs 1,500 crore under the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) I and II to clean the river unsuccessfully. The first phase was launched after a study by the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. It covered Delhi, eight towns in Uttar Pradesh and six towns in Haryana. Under YAP II, the 22-km stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi, one of the dirtiest, was taken up. In the next phase, the Government plans to spend another Rs 5,300 crore to clean the river.
It may be noted that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), in its report regarding the pollution level in Yamuna, pointed out that Yamuna’s water from Panipat to Agra contain high-levels of pollutants. Meanwhile, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels, a key measure of water pollution, have increased between Panipat and Agra, thanks to hundreds of drains that dump untreated sewage in the river. The CPCB has also identified two critically polluted stretches of the river — one from Wazirabad to Okhla in Delhi and the other from Majawali to Juhika in Uttar Pradesh. Discharge of untreated sewage into the Yamuna is one of the main culprits polluting the river.