Pollution in Yamuna under Supreme Court scanner for a second time
The Court directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to prepare a report identifying the municipalities along the stretch of the river which are yet to install sewage treatment plants (STP).
The Supreme Court on Wednesday took a second shot at cleaning the polluted Yamuna River by taking suo moto cognizance of significantly high levels of ammonia in water discharged from neighbouring Haryana into the Capital.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) issued a notice to two Central Ministries - Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, governments of states of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and National Capital Territory of Delhi to be represented on January 19, the next date of hearing.
The Court noted that the Constitution and judicial decisions of the past have given the mandate of setting up Sewage Treatment Plants and stoppage of sewage effluents in surface water to the municipalities. However, as seen in the present petition, the Court said, “It is often found that either the sewage is not treated through a plant before being discharged or the treatment plants are not functional or incapacitated.”
The Court directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to prepare a report identifying the municipalities along the stretch of the river which are yet to install sewage treatment plants (STP). “It (CPCB) shall also submit priority-wise list of Municipalities, river stretches adjacent to which have been found to be most polluted,” said the bench, also comprising Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. The central pollution body will also be at liberty to identify other gaps causing untreated sewerage to be discharged into the river.
A similar exercise was undertaken by the Supreme Court in July 1994 by taking suo moto notice of a HT report “And Quiet Flows the Maily Yamuna”. After monitoring the case for 23 years and gaining little success, the apex court on April 24, 2017 transferred the suo moto petition to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The bench seemed to be aware of this order as it recorded in its order, “It is clarified that the suo moto petition and directions issued herein, shall not in any way dilute any other directions issued by other Court or Tribunal.” The suo moto petition has been titled “Remediation of polluted rivers”
What prompted the top court to examine the matter a second time over was a petition filed by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to stop Haryana government from discharging pollutants into the river. Senior advocate Meenakshi Arora who appeared for DJB pointed out that level of ammonia in the river water flowing through Delhi had reached alarming proportions. On December 25 last year, ammonia concentration in water peaked to 13 ppm as against the permissible limit of 0.5 ppm.
Arora said, “The water treatment plants of DJB are able to treat water with ammonia content up to 0.9 ppm. Due to this reason, our plants at Chandrawal, Wazirabad and Okhla are forced to function at nearly 50 per cent capacity. The problem is with Haryana as their STPs do not work. They should not discharge untreated sewerage into the river. Ammonia mixed with chlorine can cause cancer. We cannot supply this water to residents.”
DJB in its petition demanded an immediate order against Haryana to stop discharge of pollutants into the river. Haryana was even accused of not releasing the full 450 cusecs of water to Delhi at Wazirabad and demanded an order to that effect. The DJB had in the past written several letters to its Haryana counterpart but no concrete action has been forthcoming.
Pointing to the “extremely dire and urgent situation” facing Delhi, DJB in its petition filed by advocate Shadan Farasat said, “The water treatment plants at Wazirabad, Chandrawal, Okhla, Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi may not be able to process/pump any water at all due to the extremely high impurity levels. This would completely disrupt the supply of drinking water in the NCT of Delhi and can potentially plunge it into a humanitarian crisis where many of its residents are unable to access drinking water.”
The bench said, “We find that in addition to the issue raised by present petition, it will be appropriate to take suo moto cognizance with regard to the issue of contamination of rivers by sewage effluents and ensure that the mandate is implemented by municipalities as far as discharge of sewage into rivers is concerned…We deem it appropriate at this stage to start with the issue of contamination of river Yamuna.”
The Court appointed Arora as amicus curiae to assist them in the suo moto petition. The Court issued notice to Haryana government and CPCB on DJB’s petition and posted it along with the suo moto proceeding on January 19.