Why the Yamuna can't be saved in Delhi

Even before the elected BJP government took shape, machines like trash skimmers and weed harvesters were seen cleaning the in Delhi. The mechanised machines were publicised by Raj Bhavan to reassure the people that with the , operation clean-up was being launched in earnest.

Where were these machines until now, many wondered, questioning why they were not deployed earlier if they were indeed available. Environmentalists and experts were also cynical. Weeds and trash, they pointed out, are a regular feature of rivers in the heavily populated northern plains; but if the natural flow of water is maintained, the river often cleans itself.

The hype over the machines followed extravagant promises made by the BJP during its campaign and in its poll manifesto ahead of the Delhi elections. Returning to power in Delhi after 27 years, the BJP had blamed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for not doing enough to . The AAP in turn blamed the lieutenant-governor (LG) and the Union government for not allowing the state government a free hand.

The AAP did challenge in the Supreme Court the formation of a committee chaired by the LG to oversee the cleaning operations. It argued before the court that the committee, formed on the directions of the National Green Tribunal, should have comprised domain experts as chairperson and members.

The apex court stayed the functioning of the committee and asked the Union government to respond. It was never explained why the court order came in the way of deploying the machines. No permission from the elected government was required to deploy them and because a mere administrative order from the LG was sufficient to remove the trash and the weeds, why they were not deployed for the past several years is anybody’s guess.

If the bitter truth be told, it is largely because of the indifference of the people that political parties ceased to take the cleanliness of the Yamuna seriously. Even AAP seemed only before festivals like Chhath.

The fact is that in the past two decades, the ammonia level in the river would show an increase at least 10 times every year. The water level, too, has been declining steadily even as the population around it is increasing. The inevitable rise in in the water indicate that they got into the Yamuna without treatment or poor treatment.

Delhi has been drawing more water than ever before from the river. There has been a steady increase in water pollution because more pollutants are being dumped in the water and, finally, the water level is steadily going down. The diagnosis has been done by experts already. Although the new BJP government headed by has provided Rs 500 crore in the annual budget for cleaning the river, the solutions are old, tested, tried and, well, ineffective.

The budget allocations would be used to clean the drains which feed the Yamuna, it was announced. As many as 40 new sewage treatment plants (STPs), in addition to the existing 37 would be set up and ‘modern machines’ worth Rs 40 crore would be purchased. The budget has also earmarked Rs 200 crore for cleaning and treating the Najafgarh drain, and an equal amount for laying a pipeline to carry water from the canal that fetches water from Haryana to Delhi.

The flurry of announcements made in the past few weeks, however, betray the real intent of the government — the plan to build a Yamuna riverfront on the lines of the Sabarmati riverfront in Ahmedabad.

It shows the deep desire to utilise the banks of the river for commercial purposes. Paving and concretising the river bank with promenades and colonnade and kiosks seems to be the priority. The National Green Tribunal banned any type of construction on the banks of the Yamuna in 2015, which has been merrily defied.

The constructions during the last one year in Sarai Kale Khan, including a cafeteria named ‘Baans Ghar’, and the 22 acres now being set aside there for the riverfront are both in defiance of the ban.

The Sabarmati ‘river’ has more or less disappeared in Ahmedabad. The water that one sees there is from the Narmada and the ‘developed’ riverfront is being used primarily for commercial purposes. Sabarmati used to be a seasonal river and would dry up in summer. But water from the Narmada is used to maintain the water level throughout the year, upsetting the river’s natural ecosystem.

Concretisation of the banks has affected the river’s capacity to recharge underground water. The artificial river water is largely still as in a lake, affecting the level of dissolved oxygen and increasing the pollution. The variety of plant species found in rivers is also missing in the Sabarmati. There has been a drastic reduction in the number of migratory birds and aquatic animals.

Thousands of poor families were displaced by the riverfront project and driven out of the city, affecting their livelihood. People were also rendered homeless because they did not receive either compensation or houses promised to them. Ironically, the water from the Narmada being used to keep the Sabarmati riverfront brimming round the year has affected both agriculture and availability of drinking water in drought-prone areas.

Developments along the Sabarmati helped tourism and real estate but did little to help the river or the poor.

And if you think the air is the only thing we have screwed up, here is a reminder of what we have done to our rivers.

Say hello to the Yamuna. Or whatever is left of it. pic.twitter.com/5G1ywwz0g5

— Sania Ahmad (@SaniaAhmad1111) November 3, 2019

Will Delhi learn any lessons? A recent parliamentary committee report tabled in Parliament called a spade a spade. The Yamuna river is ‘virtually non-existent’ in Delhi due to insufficient dissolved oxygen levels ‘which indicate whether the river is alive or not’, it said, and even if the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) treats all its sewage up to the required standards, it would still stay polluted due to lack of freshwater flow.

Under the Yamuna Action Plan since 1993, the Union government has spent Rs 1,514.70 crore to build STPs in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The key concern of maintaining an adequate environmental flow, however, remained unaddressed, the committee’s findings revealed. The panel observed that ‘there is almost nil environmental flow available at downstream of Wazirabad barrage during 9 out of 12 months in a year…’

As many as 23 out of 33 locations on the Yamuna (six in Haryana and Delhi each, and 11 in Uttar Pradesh) are not suitable for bathing, revealed the report.

The Yamuna Action Plan has already spent a staggering Rs 8,000 crore in all. The Delhi government itself claims to have spent Rs 6,500 crore between 2017 and 2021. What the government is planning to do is to bluff people with development on less than two per cent of the Yamuna riverfront (the river passes through 52 km in Delhi), reduce the river to a canal and reclaim the land to set up commercial establishments. This will hardly qualify as cleaning the Yamuna.

The water level in even before it enters Haryana, which is why plans to utilise the water for irrigation and power generation have not taken off. The river passes through an active seismic zone and the low level of water, which affects recharge of groundwater, increases the risk of earthquakes.

The sad truth is that unless the river is allowed to flow freely, neither investment nor technology can save the river. If allowed to flow freely and carry its full capacity of water, the river has the ability to clean itself to a great extent. It is an irony that crores are being spent in Delhi on a virtually non-existent river.