Clean up for real

It’s time for direct action to save the heavily polluted Yamuna.

Earlier this year the National Green Tribunal had asked the Delhi Pollution Control Committee to shut 1,200 industrial units that were dumping untreated waste into Yamuna. But it’s not just industrial effluents that are poisoning and choking the river to death. Though Delhi produces 3,800 million litres of sewage per day, the city’s 23 sewage treatment plants can process only 40% of that. The rest flows directly into the Yamuna through rainwater drains. And this is the river that provides 70% of the national capital’s drinking water.

The environment disaster brewing in our rivers must be reversed forthwith. Think of it as an investment not only in the public health of citizens but in enhancing tourism as well. Once the Yamuna has been cleaned up Delhi’s river front can be made to bloom, like the Seine in Paris or Thames in London.