Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh must work together to revive Yamuna: Amit Shah

The Union home minister laid out a detailed roadmap that spanned upgrading Delhi’s outdated STP infrastructure

Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday called for coordinated action by Delhi, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to rejuvenate the Yamuna, as he chaired a high-level review meeting with top officials and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta. Emphasising urgency, Shah asked all three states to ensure transparency in monitoring sewage treatment plants (STPs) and to implement third-party quality checks of water discharged into the river.

Amit Shah during a high level review meeting on Yamuna rejuvenation in New Delhi. (PIB)

Shah laid out a detailed roadmap that spanned upgrading Delhi’s outdated STP infrastructure, monitoring industrial and dairy waste, cracking down on illegal borewells, promoting rainwater harvesting, and increasing ecological flow (e-flow) in the river to restore its health.

“All three states – Haryana, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh – must work together. There should be regularity and transparency in testing of the water flowing out of STPs, and third-party quality testing should be conducted,” Shah said at the meeting, according to an official statement.

A major focus of Friday’s review was Delhi’s inadequate sewage treatment capacity. The Capital currently has a capacity of around 712 million gallons per day (MGD), despite generating nearly 792 MGD of sewage. Shah directed that STP capacity across the region be ramped up to 1,500 MGD by 2028.

The home minister also called on the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) to adopt an “action mode” approach and instructed the Delhi government to intensify its crackdown on pollution from industrial units. “Apart from Delhi, chemicals are also entering Yamuna through effluents from other states. This is a shared responsibility,” he said.

Friday’s meeting underscored the Bharatiya Janata Party government’s increasing push to fast-track Yamuna clean-up efforts – one of its key poll promises – and marked the second such review in just over six weeks.

It was attended by Union housing and urban affairs minister Manohar Lal, Jal Shakti minister CR Patil, and senior officials from key ministries. It followed a similar review on May 22 and a separate meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in April — indicating that river rejuvenation remains at the top of the government’s urban policy agenda.

At the meeting, CM Rekha Gupta presented the Delhi government’s initiatives, including the constitution of two committees – one headed by her and the other by the chief secretary – to monitor progress. Gupta said pollution was being mapped at 46 outfall points across 22 major drains. Drone surveys of 20 drains have been conducted to assess the extent of contamination, officials aware of the meeting’s details said.

Gupta also highlighted that 37 STPs had remained un-upgraded during the tenure of the previous AAP government, but work had now been set in motion under the BJP, with consultants being hired to execute modernisation.

“Under the guidance of the central government, the Delhi government, in collaboration with NDDB, will move forward by formulating a concrete action plan for dairy waste management, borewell regulation, and the restoration of reservoirs,” Gupta said in a post on X.

Shah, meanwhile, emphasised the need for drone surveys of the Najafgarh and Shahdara drains – two of the most polluted drains that discharge into the Yamuna. Both are notorious for their critically high Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), a marker of severe organic pollution and poor sewage treatment.

He also called for urgent steps to manage rainwater better, asking the Delhi government to develop local reservoirs to capture monsoon runoff. “Developing reservoirs will also promote tourism,” Shah noted, while pushing for better collaboration with the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) to handle waste from dairies and gaushalas.

Another problem – illegal and unchecked extraction of groundwater – was flagged for immediate attention. Shah directed the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to map existing borewells, regulate their use, and develop a long-term citywide water supply blueprint.

Shah also stressed the need to improve e-flow into the Yamuna, particularly during the dry season when the river is reduced to a fetid trickle. He asked the Delhi government to coordinate with Uttar Pradesh to release more water upstream.

“Increasing the flow of treated water downstream of the Yamuna can significantly improve water quality at critical points,” he said.

The river, which travels 52km through Delhi, is relatively clean near Wazirabad but quickly deteriorates after receiving untreated sewage, solid waste, and industrial effluents from multiple points along its route. The Najafgarh and Shahdara drains alone account for over 70% of the pollution load.

The Yamuna has long symbolised the Capital’s urban decay — a river once worshipped now turned into a receptacle for civic neglect. Despite decades of clean-up plans, multi-crore budgets, and political promises, little has changed on the ground. With eight of Delhi’s 35 major drains still discharging raw sewage, and industries continuing to dump waste unchecked, public scepticism runs high.

Cleaning of the Yamuna was among key poll issues raised by the BJP in the runup to the 2025 assembly elections in Delhi. Within weeks of taking office, the Rekha Gupta-led government launched projects worth ₹3,140 crore aimed at modernising STPs, reducing industrial discharge, and plugging drain outfalls.