Life sucked out

For those who ask the question: where has the water of the Yamuna gone? The answer is depressing, but it also shows the way to reviving the river. Madhu Bhaduri elaborates.

For those who ask the question: where has the water of the Yamuna gone? The answer is depressing, but it also shows the way to reviving the river. Up to Hathnikund and the Tajewala headworks, the river has a flow of 82 cubic metres per second (cumesec) of water, of which 1.5 per cent is diverted to the Eastern Yamuna Canal and 98.5 per cent to the Western Canal.

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At Wazirabad, 11 cumesec is subtracted for supply to Delhi, and nothing flows into the river downstream from here. To that is added Delhi’s sewage.

Between Hathnikund/Tajewala and Etawah, the Yamuna is deliberately turned into a large sewage drain. Only at Etawah the Chambal, Sindh and Ken bring an estimated 90 cumesec of fresh water to it, reviving it back to a normal self-cleaning and flowing river. The river’s flow downstream from Hathnikund during 1971-1980 was above 20,000 cumesec, was down to 12,000 cumesec by 2000, and is a mere trickle now.

Authorities in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan have limited their attention to cleaning the river through engineering projects, and paid no heed to the advice for providing fresh water downstream of Wazirabad as recommended in a modelling exercise for the Yamuna Action Plan Phase II.

An ordinance would be in order to revive the river by ensuring an environmentally minimum amount of water, round the
year. Those who liken the Yamuna to the Thames, Seine and Danube should add their voices to those of experts recommending fresh water inflow into the deliberately starved river.

Madhu Bhaduri is a former diplomat

The views expressed by the author are personal