HC raps Delhi govt for failing to regulate waste emission into Yamuna

New Delhi
The Delhi high court on Tuesday reprimanded the Delhi government for failing to regulate the emission of sewage and industrial waste into the Yamuna, saying that its sewage treatment plants (STPs) were not working at capacity.
“Something is wrong here in the STPs. The STPs are not working. There is something drastically wrong there, who is monitoring the STPs? STPs are not working according to capacity and not performing,” a bench of chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedela said to an official with the chief secretary’s office.
The bench added, “Yamuna is clean till it reaches Delhi and beyond ITO and ISBT, it gets polluted. Have you seen the latest data? Who’s monitoring unauthorised industries? Who’s checking that? When was the last check done? How many times has it been cross checked that they are working? There can’t be so much foam and toxicity in the water (Yamuna) that people are coming here to pray and we have to tell them that please don’t go. It can’t be.”
The formation of toxic froth in the Yamuna is an annual phenomenon during winters, and experts say it is an indicator of high levels of untreated sewage and industrial pollutants in the river’s water. It usually coincides with the Chhath Puja, a four-day festival celebrated by people from Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh — popularly known as Purvanchalis, who number an estimated third of Delhi’s population. The festivities involve offering of “arghya” by fasting devotees to the Sun God in knee-deep water on a designated day, which fell on November 7 this year.
The government faced the court’s wrath days after it expressed concern over the heavy pollution of the Yamuna, stressing that it could not allow people to go into a river “contaminated” with “untreated sewage”, in the interest of public health.
While refusing to permit devotees to perform Chhath Puja on a Yamuna river ghat in Geeta Colony, the court on November 6 said that allowing devotees to take a dip in the “highly polluted” would be harmful to them. “It (Yamuna) is day by day getting contaminated. No living being can be allowed to go inside…Untreated sewage is going into it,” the bench had said.
The court was responding to a plea in which it had taken suo motu cognisance of the waterlogging problem in the Capital.
During the hearing, the official submitted that although 37 STPs in the city were not working in accordance with prescribed norms, the government had rehabilitated three major STPs and constructed three more in the city. He said that there was a clear action plan with a timeline and the situation was improving.
However the court rebuked the official for presenting a “rosy picture”, and suggested Delhi chief secretary Dharmender fix responsibility of the officers.
“Despite so many steps being taken, it should improve. Just see the photos of the Chhath Puja that were shown to us. A lady is mistaking the foam in the water to be shampoo. What photos were shown to us during the period? We all live in the city know! We know exactly what it is. If you think the quality is improving, then good luck to you, you may be the only person who thinks that. Your own GNCTD officer says that Yamuna is highly polluted. Certain areas in Delhi are famous for hosting unauthorised industries. Have you been in those areas?” the bench said.