The water present in almost the entire stretch of river Yamuna in the city of Delhi does not actually belong to the river. It is nothing but sewage, both domestic and industrial, which is dumped into the river flow from all parts of the city. However, that does not mean that there is no water in the river. The water is in plenty but the truth lies somewhere else.
The Yamuna River before entering into the capital city passes through Hathnikund Barrage. The amount of water in the river till this point is around 82 cumesec (cubic meter per second, representing the flow of the river). From this point onwards, the river is divided into three portions:
- Western Yamuna Canal (which takes away 67.5 cumesec water)
- Eastern Yamuna Canal (which takes away 12 cumesec water)
- The actual river flow which is left with only 2.5 cumesec water)
The water taken away through the two canals is used to provide water and electricity to the states of Haryana, UP and Delhi. But in doing so, the river is left with absolutely no water of its own. In fact, several escapes have been built along the canals so as to allow some water to come back into the river but unfortunately none of the escapes are today operational. No river along the duration of its entire course would ever appear steady. The Yamuna in Delhi however is left to become a stagnant pond of sewage and waste coming from households and industries.
Supreme Court in 1996 had ordered that a minimum of 10 cumesec of flow be maintained in the river at all times. However, it’s been 13 years and nothing has yet been done in this direction. All the money which is being used under Yamuna Action Plan will go down the drain unless the river gets back some if its original water. This is because even if through some miracle, authorities are able to clean the river, the sewage will anyways return back into the river because no mechanism would have been made to either divert the sewage or treat it before being dumped into the river.
It is also not that we do not have Sewage Treatment Plants. We have them but their efficiencies have always been questionable. As unfortunate as it can happen with the river, Yamuna forms a borderline between three states of UP, Haryana and Delhi and so all the three states want to take all the benefits of the river but none wants to take on the responsibility to preserve it. This is a perfect case of “Tragedy of Commons” wherein a common resource is being perished owing to the greed of few individuals who are benefitting from it. The Kya Farak Padta Hai attitude exhibited by all the officials sitting on the boards of numerous institutions and bodies constituted to preserve the river continues to bring about the downfall of our lifeline.
It is extremely difficult to change someone’s mindset but let us all at least make an effort to do that. There are several policy suggestions which can be made to improve the situation (some of which will be the point of discussion in our next blog) but on our front, all we need to do are two simple things, Save Water and Do not dump waste into the river (whatever little of it exists in our city). As we say, Make your Own Choice.
