Restoring the Cycle

Elections for the Delhi Legislative Assembly have concluded and there is a new party in power. This is the dance of democracy, but this time there was one key difference. When pollsters asked people why they voted against the party in power, the answers threw up issues that we know matter but do not make it to the list. Pollution in the river Yamuna—the 22 km stretch that passes through Delhi—was on top; then came toxic air pollution and garbage. Till now, environmental issues have not made it to the manifestos of parties, but this time voters have spoken and hopefully this will make a difference.

As the new government gets down to the business of cleaning the Yamuna, it must be clear on a few things. One, it is not that the last state government or even the government before the last were not serious about cleaning the Yamuna. All governments have had the intention to clean the river that has become a sewage canal. Huge funds have been spent—both by the Union and state governments. According to an official estimate, Rs 6,500 crore were spent in the four years between 2017 and 2021. This is a massive amount. But it may even be an underestimation, since the funds to clean the river come from different sources and account heads. So, it is not about commitment or funds.

Two, there is a plan for cleaning the river and because this is about Delhi, just about every court—from the apex court to National Green Tribunal—has active cases to review this action plan. Every month, a report is prepared diligently by the state government; every month it is filed in court. So it should not be assumed, as the new government takes charge, that nothing has been done or that nobody cared. That rhetoric is good for the pre-election time when parties need to score points. But it is not conducive for the critical and considered steps that are needed now.

What needs to be deliberated is that despite this money, the attention and the action plan, nothing has visibly improved in the state of the river. The monthly reports filed by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee show that in most months, the river’s water quality, as it enters the city at Palla or where it draws its water from at Wazirabad, is fairly good. But within a few kilometres of its 22 km journey through Delhi, it dies. By the time water quality is checked at the next monitoring point of Interstate Bus Terminal (ISBT), the dissolved oxygen has gone from the mandated standard of 5 mg/litre to 0; and faecal coliform counts have risen many times. It is important to note that lack of oxygen means that the water has no life. So, we can say the river in Delhi is dead, even if it has not been officially cremated. The fact is, the action plan needs to be re-worked so that it can be impactful. We are not doing things right. This is what needs to be understood. So, what should be the agenda for cleaning the Yamuna?

First, there should be focus not just on tracking the building of sewage treatment plants (STPs) but also on the amount of sewage that is intercepted and taken for treatment. This means accepting that large areas of Delhi are not connected to underground sewerage systems—the current plan only pays lip service to this. But this ignores the sheer scale of the city that is unconnected to official underground sewerage systems. Here, people have no option but to depend on desludging tankers for septage management. The good news is people are managers of their own sewage. This means, the state does not have to invest in building and refurbishing sewage pipelines and extending them to unconnected areas—whose numbers are growing as cities expand. The key step is to ensure that all desludging tankers are registered; have GPS installed; and a control room is set up to monitor the tanker movement. In addition, it is important that the desludged material is taken to treatment points so that the used water and sludge can be reused.

Second, the plan must ensure that “treated” wastewater is not discharged into drains, where it gets mixed with untreated wastewater from unofficial areas. The treated effluents need to be completely reused and recycled. Currently, according to the Delhi Economic Survey, less than 10 per cent of treated wastewater is reused. Most STPs are not located at the riverfront and so, the treated wastewater is discharged into the same drains that carry the untreated sewage to the river. It is no surprise then that there is no real impact on the quality of the water. The action plan must focus on the 22 drains of the city; pollution management is about estimating the quality not only through standards like biological oxygen demand (BOD), but also through the quantum of wastewater. Delhi has to ensure that it has a plan for each drain; and the plan is to reduce the pollution load by intercepting untreated sewage, by not adding treated sewage and finally by treating the remaining wastewater in the drain as close to where it is discharged into the river as possible. Currently, Delhi takes water from the Yamuna and returns sewage to it. Now it must take water and also return water to the river. Only then can the river flow. DTE

The writer is the Director-General of CSE and editor of DownToEarth. Views expressed are personal