Pictures and videos showing devotees offering prayers in the Yamuna on the occasion of Chhath Puja on Monday with toxic foam floating on the surface of the river triggered a political slugfest between the ruling AAP and the BJP in Delhi. While the BJP leaders alleged that the AAP government did not allow Chhath celebrations on the Yamuna banks to hide the “pathetic” state of the river, the AAP’s Gopal Rai and Raghav Chadha blamed the governments in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for the frothing in the river.
The 22-kilometre stretch of the Yamuna between Wazirabad and Okhla, which is less than 2 per cent of its length of 1,370 kilometres from Yamunotri to Allahabad, accounts for around 80 per cent of the pollution load in the river. The presence of phosphates and surfactants in untreated sewage from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh is a major reason behind frothing in the river, according to experts.
AAP leader and Delhi Jal Board Vice Chairman Raghav Chadha claimed that Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been releasing around 155 million gallons of untreated wastewater a day in the river through Najafgarh and Shahdara drains. “This water containing a lot of organic waste, chemicals and detergents fall from a height at the Okhla barrage which leads to the formation of foam,” he said.
Besides, paper and sugar industries in Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh also release untreated wastewater containing surfactants into the Yamuna through the Hindon Canal at Okhla Barrage near Indira Kunj, Chadha said. While the Delhi government has been working to upgrade its sewage treatment plants to meet the revised standards of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), Uttar Pradesh and Haryana should do their bit in keeping the river clean, he said.
BJP MP Manoj Tiwari, who rode a boat in the foam-covered Yamuna, alleged that the AAP government did not allow Chhath Puja on its banks because it wanted to cover up the frothing in the river caused by high pollution load. “(Delhi Chief Minister) Arvind Kejriwal has been saying since 2013 that his government will make the Yamuna fit for bathing in five years. Today, Delhi’s air and water both are poisonous. They did not allow Chhath celebrations on the Yamuna so that no one can see how poisonous the river has become,” he alleged.
Reacting to it, Environment Minister Gopal Rai blamed the BJP-led Haryana government for the toxic foam in the river and said leaders of the saffron party here should seek answers from the neighbouring state. “Manoj Tiwari should ask the BJP government in Haryana (about the frothing). Delhi doesn’t release poisonous water in the Yamuna, Haryana does,” he said.
The Delhi government had in June banned the sale, storage, transportation, and marketing of soaps and detergents not conforming to the latest BIS standards to curb pollution in the river. Untreated wastewater from unauthorised colonies and the poor quality of effluent discharged from Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) and sewage treatment plants (STPs) within Delhi is one of the major reasons behind pollution in the river.
On an average, 24 out of the 35 STPs in the national capital did not meet the prescribed standards for wastewater over the last one year, according to government data. Of the 13 CETPs in industrial areas across Delhi, only six comply with the DPCC standards for wastewater on an average.
Delhi generates around 720 million gallons of wastewater a day. The 35 STPs located at 20 locations across Delhi can treat up to 597 MGD of sewage and have been utilising around 90 per cent of their capacity. In January, the Delhi government had told the National Green Tribunal the upgradation of STPs in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi to “substantially” reduce foaming in the Yamuna will take three to five years depending upon the availability of land and funds.
In a report submitted to the Union Jal Shakti Ministry in July, the Delhi government had said that the Yamuna cannot become fit for bathing in the absence of a minimum environment flow in the river. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an environmental flow is the water provided within a river, wetland or coastal zone to maintain ecosystems and their benefits where there are competing water uses and where flows are regulated.
A study conducted by the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, has recommended that 23 cubic metres per second (cumec) water be released in the river from the Hathnikund Barrage in Haryana’s Yamuna Nagar district in the lean season for sustaining downstream ecosystems. “The ministry/National Mission for Clean Ganga has observed that the water-sharing agreement of 1994 among the riparian states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi is due for revision only in 2025 unless any of the states so demand, implying that no revision of water sharing will be possible to achieve the E-flow in the Yamuna,” the Delhi government’s report read.
The Delhi government had also prepared a nine-point action plan last year to prevent frothing in the river. The plan lays down targets to be achieved by various agencies, including the Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Development Authority and municipal corporations, to prevent the discharge of untreated wastewater in the river.
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