Loni, Gzb adding to Yamuna pollution, says Delhi govt

An assessment by the Delhi government found that Shahdara drain, which accounts for the largest pollutant inflow into the Yamuna, is receiving a substantial amount of untreated effluents from Loni and Ghaziabad in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh

New Delhi

A view of the Shahdara drain in Uttar Pradesh. (Sunil Ghosh/HT)

An assessment by the Delhi government found that Shahdara drain, which accounts for the largest pollutant inflow into the Yamuna, is receiving a substantial amount of untreated effluents from Loni and Ghaziabad in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, officials of the Delhi government said.

A senior government functionary said the pollution load on the Yamuna and its sources are being assessed to prepare a comprehensive action plan.

“Shahdara drain is the second biggest pollution contributor to the Yamuna after the Najafgarh drain. Just like Najafgarh drain is getting untreated wastewater from Haryana, the Shahdara drain has also been found to have substantial industrial and domestic untreated wastewater from Ghaziabad and Loni. We will soon be writing to the UP authorities on this matter,” the official said.

The Shahdara drain is a 57-kilometre-long open drain in east Delhi that carries untreated sewage, industrial effluents, and solid waste into the Yamuna. The Yamuna water quality has been found to be at its worst after the point where the Shahdara drain converges into it.

Official aware of the project said that the Shahdara drain is getting a massive inflow of wastewater from the Sahibabad, Indirapuri , Banthala and Loni drains in neighbouring states. “They are carrying lots of industrial waste from Loni and Sahibabad industrial township and the Loni drain is also discharging sewage into the Shahdara drain. After meeting the Shahdara drain, all this material flows and ultimately meets the Yamuna,” the official said.

Since both the Najafgarh and Shahdara drain are too large to be tapped and diverted, they were not covered under the Interceptor Sewer Program. However the agencies have tapped several of the sub-drains falling into them.

As per the August report of the river pollution assessment by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of water samples in Yamuna after the confluence of Shahdara drain was 52 mg/L—worst across all other points in Delhi. The BOD at this point was 11mg/L compared to just 3.7mg/L at Palla, where the river enters Delhi. For C-class water quality criterion, the BOD should be less than 3mg/L. The report also stated that the faecal coliform level was 35000 MPN/100ml, against a permissible level of 500 units.

A UP government official responsible for the area refuted the findings, but did not elaborate further.

Meanwhile, another official said that the Uttar Pradesh government, in an affidavit filed before the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on September 10, stated that plans have been made to significantly increase the sewage treatment plant capacity in the basin by 2027. The affidavit stated that there is a gap of 285.43 MLD in the installed and utilised capacity of the 20 STPs in seven districts, including Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Ghaziabad, Baghpat, Saharanpur, and Gautam Budh Nagar, for which STPs are proposed and work is on for laying sewer lines and household connections.

Specifically, Ghaziabad has sewage generation of 480 MLD but utilised STP capacity is only 381 MLD while a new 68MLD STP is under construction and likely to be operational by December 2025, the affidavit states.