LG Orders Immediate Yamuna Cleanup As Delhi Pushes For Pollution-Free River

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena met with the Chief Secretary of the national capital where an immediate directive was issued to clean the Yamuna River.

A cattle herd wades through the Yamuna River.

Source : PTI

As trash skimmers, weed harvesters and dredge utility units were deployed on Sunday, Yamuna cleaning efforts were in action. The issue dominated Delhi polls campaigns. This comes after Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the BJP's victory celebration at party headquarters on February 8 promised to make every effort for pollution-free Yamuna.

A meeting between Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and the Chief Secretary of the national capital was held after which where an immediate directive was issued to clean the Yamuna River.

According to a statement from the Lieutenant Governor's office, there is a "four-pronged strategy" to tackle the issue of pollution in the Yamuna. The cleaning of Yamuna started based on a four-pronged strategy to free the river from heavy pollution in three years.

The four-pronged strategy involves removing trash and silt from the river stream and simultaneous cleaning operations in the Najafgarh drain, supplementary drain and other major drains. Further, the strategy involves daily monitoring of the capacity and output of the existing sewage treatment plants, and a time-bound construction of new Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and decentralised STPs to meet the actual shortfall of treating about 400 MGD of the sewer.

"Execution of this ambitious plan that targets cleaning the river in about three years, will require seamless coordination between various agencies and departments including Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Jal Board, I&FC, environment department, public works department and Delhi Development Authority," said an official at the LG office, as per a PTI report,

"Monitoring of these works will be done in a weekly basis at the highest level. Besides, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has been directed to keep strict vigil on the discharge of untreated effluent into the drains by industrial units," he said.

For a brief period during the committee’s existence, there was a slight month-on-month improvement in chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels in the Yamuna. In its Viksit Delhi Sankalp Patra for the assembly elections, the BJP pledged to establish a "Yamuna Kosh" to rejuvenate the river and develop a riverfront along its banks.

The party's manifesto also promised to expand sewage treatment capacity to 1,000 million gallons per day (MGD) and increase common effluent treatment plant capacity to 220 million litres per day (MLD).