YAMUNA RIVER, DELHI

The polluted Yamuna flows ominously Comprising of over 70% of the Earth's surface, water is undoubtedly the most precious natural resource that exists on our planet. Without the seemingly invaluable compound comprised of hydrogen and oxygen, life on Earth would be non-existent: it is essential for everything on our planet to grow and prosper. Although we, as humans, recognize this fact, we disregard it by polluting our rivers, lakes and oceans. Subsequently, we are slowly but surely harming our planet to a point where organisms are dying at a very alarming rate. Industrialization, deforestation and urbanization led to large discharge of industrial waste and sewage system to the otherwise clean water of our rivers. This has resulted in a condition when water has become unfit for drinking. It is not safe for even animals, birds, fishes etc.

The Yamuna, a major tributary to the holy river Ganga, is itself one of the holiest rivers of India and is used by millions as a source for drinking water besides for bathing and irrigation. In recent years, however, it has become grossly polluted due to various causes affecting human health and bio-diversity of the eco-system. Mr S V Suresh Babu, Deputy Director,

River Pollution Campaign at the Centre for Science and Environment, said “The Yamuna has become dirtier, and so have the towns along its stretch. And Delhi is its biggest polluter, followed by Agra, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. The Yamuna's 22-km stretch in Delhi is barely 2 per cent of the length of the river, but contributes over 70 per cent of the pollution load”.

Delhi alone contributes around 3,296 MLD (million litres per day) of sewage by virtue of drains falling out in Yamuna. This is more than that of all the class two cities of India put together. The low perennial flow in Yamuna and the huge quantity of waste it receives have given it the dubious distinction of being one of the most polluted rivers of the country. Ten to fifteen years ago, a large quantity of Delhi's sewage was used for irrigating agricultural lands. Today agricultural lands have been converted into residential colonies and hence drainage of wastewater is difficult in the capital. Some 3.5 lakh people live in the 62,000 jhuggies that have come up on the Yamuna river bed and its embankments.

Impact of Yamuna pollution in Delhi
Delhi, with only 5% of the nation's urban population, has 40 per cent of India's sewage treatment capacity, but remains as dirty as ever. The river, in fact, is relatively clean until it enters Delhi at Wazirabad. It leaves the city transformed into a murky sewer. In Delhi, the river has virtually no freshwater for nine months. Delhi impounds all its water at Wazirabad, where the dammed up river practically ceases to exist; what flows subsequently is only sewage and waste from Delhi's 22 drains. There is just no water available to dilute this waste.

Pollution levels in the Yamuna have risen 2.5 times between 1980 and 2005. BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) load has increased 2.5 times between 1980 and 2005 from 117 tonnes per day in 1980 to 276 tonnes in 2005. Measures of dissolved oxygen used to check if the river is alive in the relatively clean upper segments are falling, indicating an increase in organic pollution. By the time the river is midway through Delhi, the total coliform count is so high that it is difficult to count the zeroes. Pesticides and heavy metals are also present in the river.

Imaginative planning needed

Accoroding to the Centre for Science and Environment the pollution of the river is directly linked to the inefficient water planning and management in Delhi. They say the planners have no clue about how much water the city uses, and neither do they know how much waste the city generates. It is not surprising, therefore, that the growth in sewage treatment capacity has not kept pace with the increase in population and waste. Treatment capacity has increased almost eight-fold in the last 40 years, but wastewater generation has grown 12-fold in the same period. We also suffer from under-utilisation. Only 68% of the city's sewage treatment capacity is utilised. The reasons are many: sewage has to be transported over long distances for treatment, through largely defunct conveyance systems. In 2001, only 15% of Delhi's sewerage system was functional. On top of this, almost 45 per cent of Delhi lives in unauthorised colonies, generating 'illegal' sewage, which is unaccounted for.

CSE says the sheer mindlessness of Delhi's pollution control efforts is evident from one example: a major portion of whatever Delhi manages to treat is released back into the city's drains. This treated effluent mixes with untreated and 'illegal' waste flowing in from large parts of the city, thereby nullifying all efforts to clean it. Also, efforts at reuse have been completely insufficient.

Revival plan



“What we need is to maximize the use of the existing treatment facilities and ensure reuse of treated effluents,” says Sunita Narain, Director of the Centre for Science and Environment. All waste, legal and illegal, sewered and unsewered must be trapped and treated and not mixed with untreated sewage. Centralised sewage treatment plants cannot be the only option. The cost of transporting waste to the treatment facility and transporting treated effluent back to the point of reuse makes them too expensive to run. Therefore, treatment facilities need to be constructed close to the source of sewage generation.

Based on these principles, a detailed plan for the top six drains of the city, which contribute 90 per cent of the pollution in the river, should be made and implemented.

Simultaneously, steps should also be taken to achieve dilution in the river mainly by reducing the city's demand for freshwater. The river needs water for a minimum flow to keep it alive. Simultaneously an attempt needs to be made to revive the waterbodies and their catchment areas to store maximum run-off, which could then be used for local water needs or could be released into the river for dilution.

We again quote from Sunita Narain ”We must remember that whatever amount of waste we manage to treat will be inadequate, and the technology to treat the waste is hugely expensive. It will be a battle which we will never win if we continue fighting it the way that we have been doing all this while. The only way out is to rethink our approach.”

Measures to prevent pollution
Catchment area: Catchment area delineation is an important component of water quality management. In order to reduce pollutant loadings at an outfall, it is necessary to examine and improve water use practices in the areas where pollutants originate. In theory, all water released at an outfall originated somewhere within the limits of that outfall's contributing area, or catchment area. Regulators can use catchment area delineation to link water quality at an outfall with land use, businesses, and property owners who may be affecting that water quality.

Develop river beds as tourist's spots : Puddles of water in the rocky riverbed and crevices are a common sight. The government is at times neglecting the revenue generating spots. All around Yamuna river bed, right from Yamnotri (the point of camouflage of melting ice) to Allahabad where Yamuna terminates, should be developed as a tourist spot.

Construction of barricades: The drainage systems have to be so designed as to allow the harvesting of rain water. Construction of barricades along the riverbed will help in prevention of free entry of any canal to the river rather in turn they will diverge to a main canal from where they can flow to the river.

Botanical and herbal gardens: Herbal and botanical gardens should be developed alongside the river bed. These can serve as tourist attractions and can also be helpful to the environment and the pharmaceutical companies.

Several tourist spots can be developed on LOT (Lease Own Transfer) basis. Some of the tourist activities which can be developed are river rafting (based on the current of the river), ferry services, golf course, water sports park, botanical gardens etc.

Finding solutions
The quality restoration of any river, especially of the Yamuna at Delhi, is a very complex and interdisciplinary endeavor. River pollution cannot be minimized merely by diverting the routes of drains carrying wastewaters and/or establishing sewage treatment plants. The required strategy for pollution control should not only be a multi-line approach but also be fool proof. The various sources of pollution in the Yamuna river and possible strategies to restore this ailing river to its pristine status must be thoroughly examined and effective and enduring solutions established and implemented.

We have to rethink our approach. Money and expensive technology are not the solutions. We have already spent close to Rs 1,500 crore on cleaning the Yamuna; and the river has become dirtier. The situation will worsen if we do not act now.

It may already be too late to avoid a crisis that the polluted Yamuna is creating for us. We must formulate appropriate policies and strategies and act on soon. Our action plan for cleaning the river has to be indigenous and innovative. Whether water is used for agriculture, industry, or municipalities, we must strengthen our ability for eradicating the problem through conservation of water and better management of the crisis.