Delhi: Several Major Yamuna Cleaning Projects Running Behind Schedule, Says Report
A report by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee has revealed that several major projects aimed at cleaning the Yamuna river in Delhi are reported to be running behind schedule.
A Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) report has revealed that several major projects aimed at cleaning the Yamuna river in Delhi are reported to be running behind schedule, as reported by the news agency PTI. The report has been submitted to the National Green Tribunal. It highlights significant delays in projects undertaken by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to curb pollution in the river.
The projects include the construction of new sewage treatment plants (STPs), rehabilitation of existing ones, trapping of drains, laying sewer lines in unauthorised colonies, desilting of trunk sewers, and utilisation of treated wastewater. These initiatives are part of an NGT panel's "Action Plan to Rejuvenate Yamuna".
The DPCC report stated that the work by the DDA to restore the Yamuna floodplains, divided into several sections, has been delayed by six to 12 months, as per PTI.
According to the report, the construction of a new 124 million gallons per day (MGD) STP in Okhla has been delayed by nine months, and now it is likely to be completed by March next year. Similarly, the construction of a 7 MGD STP in Sonia Vihar has been delayed by four months, and now it is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
The 22-kilometre stretch of the Yamuna between Wazirabad and Okhla, which represents less than two per cent of the river's total length, accounts for approximately 75 per cent of its pollution load. High levels of pollution in the river are attributed to untreated wastewater from unauthorised colonies and jhuggi-jhopri clusters, as well as the poor quality of treated wastewater discharged from STPs and common effluent treatment plants.
The Delhi government has made a commitment to clean the Yamuna to bathing standards by February 2025. To meet these standards, the biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) should be less than three milligrams per litre and the dissolved oxygen (DO) should be greater than five milligrams per litre.
According to government data, only 10 out of the 35 operational STPs in the capital meet the prescribed standards for wastewater (BOD and Total Suspended Solids less than 10 milligrams per litre), with the capacity to treat 150 million gallons of wastewater per day, as reported by PTI.
The DJB is in the process of upgrading and rehabilitating existing STPs to reduce the pollution load in the Yamuna. While the DJB initially pledged to increase the sewage treatment capacity to 814 MGD by December this year, the deadline has been extended to June 2024, as per the DPCC report. Similarly, the deadline for achieving a sewage treatment capacity of 964 MGD by June 2024 has been changed to December 2024.
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