One of the advantages of lockdown was lesser pollution in Yamuna. Several videos and pictures were the talk of the town. Normally, during the rainy season, Yamuna has a cleaner look, but this year, pollution seems to have increased in the river. The pollutant level has risen so high that three water treatment plants stopped functioning a few days back. Industrial waste is the main reason for pollution.
India Today TV visited the bank of Yamuna river near ITO where contaminated chemical water is easily visible. The Yamuna travels about 22 kilometres from Waziravad Barrage in Delhi to Okhla Barrage and in this distance, about 22 drains fall into the Yamuna which pollutes the water of this river by 80 per cent.
Now, the Delhi government has made an assessment of the reasons as to how the Yamuna river cleared during the lockdown and polluted during Unlock. When India Today asked Delhi Environment minister Gopal Rai about the condition of the river, he said that it was not possible to prepare for Yamuna cleaning during the lockdown because everything was closed.
“Yamuna river does not originate from Delhi. During the lock-down, there was lock-down in the entire country, so from where the Yamuna starts, there were harmful chemicals found in the river from start till Delhi. But when the lock-down is over, work has started in factories with harmful chemicals, and the chemical has come out of those factories into the Yamuna River” Rai said.
Rai claimed that the government had made a plan that treatment plants would be built in Delhi where the drains enter the Yamuna river, so that the water of the drains will be treated and drained into the river.
On the question of increasing the amount of chemical in the Yamuna river after the lockdown, Delhi Jal Board Chairman Satyendar Jain said that a long-term plan has been made to clean the Yamuna which has been delayed for 6 months due to corona.
“Our government is fully committed to clean the river Yamuna,” he said.
Speaking about the steps the government is taking to stop chemicals from factories from entering the Yamuna, Satyendar Jain said if there is any such factory in Delhi which is causing pollution in Yamuna river, then, strict action will be taken against it.
“If the polluting factories were to be shut down, we would definitely do so,” Jain said.
