Delhi government promises to clean Yamuna River, announces action plan

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday pledged to clean the Yamuna river completely by 2025 and announced a six-point action plan to clean the river. The Delhi Chief Minister also promised to make the river fit for bathing and drinking by 2025.

Here are the key announcements made by the CM

-Delhi government will construct new sewage treatment plants and increase the capacity of the existing ones as well as upgrade those.

– This will increase sewage treatment capacity from around 600 million gallons of waste water a day to 750 MGD-800 MGD. Waste water from four major drains falling in the Yamuna — Najafgarh, Badshahpur, Supplementary and Ghazipur — is being treated in-situ.

– The government will shut down the industries discharging industrial waste into the Yamuna. Wastewater in “jhuggi jhopri” clusters flows through stormwater drains into the Yamuna. These will be connected to the sewer network.

-The government will provide household connections in areas that have a sewer network. Earlier, the consumers had to get the connection themselves.

The Delhi government has started de-silting and rehabilitation of the sewer network. Delhi government engineers and officers are hopeful that they will be able to clean the Yamuna by February 2025 with the implementation of the six-point action plan. Specific targets have been set for each action point and the CM will personally monitor the progress.