Yamuna clean-up plan a flop show

11 Mar 2013, 03:34 PM IST

1 / 5 Citizens protesting for saving Yamuna Picture: BJP MLA protesting against pollution in Yamuna at Jantar Mantar.



Neha Lalchandani, TNN



About 19 years ago, Supreme Court first scrutinized pollution in the Yamuna. Innumerable orders later, Yamuna is dirtier than ever with a mind-numbing Rs 6,500 crore spent to clean the river and the latest plan — interceptor sewers — going nowhere.



On Monday, when SC reviews Yamuna's pollution, it could be back to the drawing board. Six years after Delhi Jal Board proposed interceptor sewers to treat sewage before it flows into major drains, just Rs 51 crore of the Rs 1,963 crore scheme have been spent. PTI

2 / 5 Yamuna after Durga Puja Picture:Poluted Yamuna after immersion on the last day of Durga Puja festival.Yogesh Kumar



It is not even clear if the measure that was to improve water quality by 2010 will actually work in light of the rapid growth of unauthorized colonies discharging sewage into the river, an issue flagged even in 2007 by an official committee that approved the interceptor proposal.



The committee had warned that 1,432 unauthorized colonies were the nub of the problem. By 2012, their number had jumped to 1,639. Although these colonies have been promised regularization, drainage and sewers are years away.

3 / 5 Polluted Yamuna waters Picture: A boat in the River Yamuna with froth from industrial pollution floating on the surface.



The SC-mandated team inspected four sewage treatment plants. It found one plant was operational but not up to capacity and another did not meet requisite parameters. A third one was non-functional and another received limited flows of untreated sewage.



Apart from the nearly Rs 2,000 crore budgeted for the interceptor scheme, money has simply gone down the drain since 1994. Uttar Pradesh has spent Rs 2,052 crore, Haryana pollution control board Rs 2,084 crore and Delhi around Rs 2,394 crore. The spending is up from Rs 5,000 crore reported earlier by TOI.



On May 19, 2010, the cabinet committee on infrastructure approved Rs 1,357 crore for the interceptor project. The Centre's component — additional central assistance — amounted to Rs 475 crore of which Rs 118 crore was transferred.



Touted as a solution to preventing untreated sewage from unauthorized colonies flowing into the Yamuna, the plan has been barely implemented.

4 / 5 Jairam Ramesh smells Yamuna water Picture: MoS for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh smells Yamuna water during a visit of Yamuna river.



The Central Pollution Control Board and Sunita Narain from Centre for Science and Environment have been sceptical of the proposal with CPCB pointing out that sewer flows were grossly underestimated and that even after implementation, Yamuna water will be far short of being "bathing quality", as envisaged by the court.



