New Delhi: Water minister Parvesh Verma held a meeting with the sewage management wing of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) on Tuesday, discussing ways to bolster sewerage infrastructure in unauthorised colonies of the national capital.
The Delhi minister was apprised of the current capacity of all 37 sewage treatment plants (STPs) and the ongoing project for the expansion of the sewerage network in unauthorised colonies.
“Instructed everyone (officials) that the responsibility of every plant is fixed. No negligence will be tolerated in cleaning the Yamuna,” Verma said in a post on X.
Delhi produces approximately 792 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage, of which DJB’s 37 operational STPs can treat only about 610 MGD. The rest of the untreated sewage often ends up in the Yamuna.
“The meeting focused on connecting the unauthorised colonies to the sewerage network and the challenges in doing so with regard to the availability of land since some of these colonies are on the Yamuna floodplain where construction is not allowed. The DJB is working out a solution,” an official explained. The DJB has its sewerage network in 1,170 unauthorized colonies out of 1,799 such settlements. Work to extend the sewerage network to 193 unauthorised colonies has been ongoing for the past few years.