Work on to achieve target of clean Yamuna by 2025: Kejriwal

Reiterating his government’s promise to completely clean river Yamuna, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the Yamuna waters will be “pristine” by 2025 and the newly constructed sewage treatment plant (STP) at Coronation Pillar will play a crucial role in reducing the pollutants in the river, while also helping in quenching the thirst of the city

Reiterating his government’s promise to completely clean river Yamuna, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday said the Yamuna waters will be “pristine” by 2025 and the newly constructed sewage treatment plant (STP) at Coronation Pillar will play a crucial role in reducing the pollutants in the river, while also helping in quenching the thirst of the city.

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After visiting the treatment plant in north Delhi on Wednesday, Kejriwal said, “The Coronation Pillar plant is in itself the biggest STP in India, with a capacity of 70MGD (million gallons per day). It is one of the most modern plants in the country, with almost every aspect of the process being automated. A SCADA system has been installed for smooth functioning of the STP, using which machineries in the plant can be operated remotely. The 70 MGD water which is exiting the plant after treatment has a purity of 10:10 BOD:TSS.”

BOD refers to biochemical oxygen demand and it reflects the amount of biodegradable organic material present in wastewater while TSS or total suspended solid represents the suspended particles in water. A ratio of 10:10 is considered good for treated wastewater, officials said.

The facility was inaugurated in March 2022 to treat 31.80 crore litres (70MGD) of waste water -- generated from the areas of Shakti Nagar, Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar, Delhi University Campus and Nehru Vihar -- on a daily basis. The treated water will be released into the Yamuna, officials said.

One of the most advanced STPs in Delhi, the Coronation Pillar facility is also at the centre stage of the proposed Singapore NEWater project announced by the state government in 2018.

NEWater is the brand name given to treated reclaimed wastewater produced by Singapore’s Public Utilities Board. Singapore, a city-state with an area of only 710 square kilometres and a population of 5.6 million, has become a world leader in harnessing new technologies to deal with scant water resources. It currently has five operational NEWater plants which cater to a large chunk of water demand by treating wastewater into high-grade drinkable water via a three-stage process—micro filtration, RO and UV filtration.

Under the Singapore NEWater project, the highly treated wastewater from the Coronation Pillar plant will undergo advanced treatment and then be pumped upstream to Palla. The water will undergo dilution and natural purification along the river course and will be further lifted for treatment by the plants near Wazirabad, a Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said.

The DJB estimates that this will help generate an additional 50-60MGD of drinking water for the city, which it is in dire need of. Against its peak projected supply capacity of less than 998MGD, Delhi currently requires 1,380MGD of drinking water if one goes by the norm of 60 gallons per capita per day (GPCD) and a projected population of 23 million.

Kejriwal said another advanced treatment plant will come up near Jahangirpuri drain which will increase the purity of treated wastewater to a BOD:TSS ratio of 4:5, after which the water will be directed towards Palla. “The facility will decrease the wastewater load on the Supplementary drain and the Najafgarh drain. The reduction in wastewater will also reduce the problem of foul smell/odour in areas in the vicinity of the drain,” he said.

In July 2018, the government had announced that the Singapore model for water treatment will help increase supply by 15 -20% by 2020 and by 50% by 2025. However, the project was hamstrung by delays in getting approvals from the Upper Yamuna River Board.

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