Even as the chief minister of Delhi, Rekha Gupta and the city’s lieutenant governor, V K Saxena announced a cruise on the beleaguered river, a parliamentary panel found that out of 33 sites where water was tested, 23 did not meet primary water quality standards. The Yamuna flows through a 40 km stretch in Delhi.
Gupta and Saxena had announced on March 12 that Delhiites would soon be able to enjoy cruises on the Yamuna River as the Delhi government and the Centre signed an MoU to develop water tourism on a 4-km stretch. Saxena also said that the facility is a major step towards integrating river, road and metro transportation, using the public-private partnership (PPP) model.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on water resources found in a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, that the river’s capacity to sustain life is nearly non-existent in the Delhi stretch, noting that 23 out of the 33 monitored sites, including six in the national capital, failed to meet primary water quality standards.
The dissolved oxygen (DO) levels, which reflect the river’s capacity to sustain life, were found to be almost nonexistent in the capital.
Commenting on the Upper Yamuna River Cleaning Project and river bed management in Delhi, the panel warned that despite the construction and upgrade of sewage treatment plants (STPs) in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh, pollution levels remain alarmingly high.
The Committee called for a coordinated response from all stakeholders to tackle pollution and restore the river’s health. It added that out of the 33 monitored sites, only four in Uttarakhand and four in Himachal Pradesh met the primary water quality criteria.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) assessed water quality at 33 locations between January 2021 and May 2023, with state pollution control boards. The assessment covered four key parameters of Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), and Faecal Coliform (FC) bacteria.
The panel raised particular concerns over encroachment along the Yamuna floodplains. The floodplain zone of the Yamuna in Uttar Pradesh remains un-demarcated, despite its ecological importance in flood management.
The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has retrieved approximately 477.79 hectares from encroachments along the floodplains, but some encroachments remain.
An earlier study conducted by the Delhi Irrigation and Flood Control Department in collaboration with CSIR-NEERI found high levels of heavy metals such as chromium, copper, lead, nickel, and zinc in sludge samples collected from key sites.
The parliamentary panel recommended controlled dredging to remove this toxic sludge. The panel also flagged the failure to maintain environmental flow (E-flow) in the Yamuna.
