Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, March 22
“Aao Yamuna Mein Jaan Daalein” (Let’s breathe life into Yamuna) may be the slogan of the Delhi government that released colourful advertisements on the World Water Day today exhorting people to clean Yamuna, but even Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit knows it won’t be possible to “restore the river to its pristine glory.” And certainly not before the Commonwealth Games which are just round the corner.
The October sporting extravaganza spelled some hope for ‘the 22-km sewage-drain’ flowing through the Capital, but the recent statement of the CM has put on a damper on grand plans. “It will not be possible to clean the river ahead of the Games. It cannot be cleaned in just a few months,” the Delhi CM was quoted as saying a few days back.
However, Dikshit’s ‘pessimism’ has not gone down well with the Yamuna conservationists. Says country’s “waterman” Magsaysay Award winner Rajendra Singh: “When a CM says Yamuna cannot be cleaned up, it is a very sad state of affairs. It’s her responsibility to ensure that the free flow in Yamuna is maintained, at least within her jurisdiction. If political leaders are so pessimistic, there is no future for rivers in the country.” Yamuna may be flowing through the country’s most fertile region, but it remains a victim of apathy. The water is full of biological and chemical wastes from agricultural fields, towns and cities as it meanders through Haryana, UP and Delhi, resembling nothing but a wide sewage disposal drain in some places.
In Delhi, water resources are in a precarious condition and untreated sewage due to lack of proper plants contaminates the river in massive proportions. “That’s why the activists were protesting against building the Games village on the riverbed so that country is saved of some embarrassment,” reveals Rajendra Singh.
“Thousands of crores, including Rs 1,500 crore in Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) I and II, have already been wasted. YAP-II has now been extended till 2011. While majority of the money was spent on the infrastructure, revival has never been the goal,”says Manoj Misra of the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan.
“The government only emphasised on pollution control, which never really happened. All sewage treatment plans are underutilised as they are constructed on wrong locations,” he rues.
The experts, however, feel that it’s not right to pin the entire blame on Delhi. Unless all riparian states, including Haryana, Utter Pradesh, Himachal, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, pitch in, there is no hope for the river,” they say. “MP is doing a good job, but Haryana, a major polluter, is not showing any sensitivity,” they add.
Haryana, however, claims that the situation is not that bad . “At Yamunanagar treated waste water is diverted into storage fields for use of farmers. Earlier untreated sewage from Panipat, Sonepat and Samalkha was diverted upstream of Palla. Now, a separate drain diverts sewage water downstream of Wazirabad so that Delhi gets clean water,” said a government official.
