One-fourth of Delhi’s sewage flows untreated into Yamuna: Report
To fix this problem, the report, which was compiled using data gathered from different agencies involved in cleaning up the Yamuna, shows by the end of December 2023, the upgradation of existing STPs and construction of new STPs is likely to see the sewage treatment capacity increase to 925.5 MGD.
A total of 171 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage flowed untreated into the Yamuna within the borders of the national capital in December, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has said in its latest progress report on the clean-up of the river.
According to the progress report made public on Monday, Delhi currently generates 768 MGD of sewage -- 80% of the Capital’s total water supply -- but the existing sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the city have a utilisation capacity to treat only 597 MGD, resulting in 171 MGD of sewage going untreated.
To fix this problem, the report, which was compiled using data gathered from different agencies involved in cleaning up the Yamuna, shows by the end of December 2023, the upgradation of existing STPs and construction of new STPs is likely to see the sewage treatment capacity increase to 925.5 MGD.
The report further highlights that 13 out of 18 major drains in Delhi have been tapped so far, and authorities have set a target to tap four out of the five remaining major drains by the end of this year. “The drains that are likely to be tapped completely this year include the Maharani Bagh drain (6.66 MGD), which has a deadline of June; Mori Gate drain (9.51 MGD) which will be tapped by August; the Sonia Vihar drain (7 MGD) by April, and the Delhi Gate drain (10 MGD) by December,” the report says.
The largest of these five drains -- the Barapullah drain (31.97 MGD) -- does not have a fixed deadline yet.
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday had noted the poor progress made so far in cleaning up the Yamuna and had formed a high-level committee headed by lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to clean up the river.
The NGT further noted that currently, there is a huge gap in the generation of sewage and available waste treatment facilities, and came down heavily on local bodies, including the DPCC, stating despite having powers, no penal action was being taken against erring industries or local authorities that were polluting the Yamuna.
Activist Manoj Misra, who is the convener of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan (YJA), said multiple timelines to clean the Yamuna have been missed over the years, and the river has not gotten any cleaner. “What Delhi needs is a committee similar to the Yamuna Monitoring Committee, where members can dedicate their entire time to the Yamuna clean-up. In the case of this new committee, most members will have to deal with hundreds of other bureaucratic tasks and the Yamuna clean-up does not remain the number one priority then,” he said.
