The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Chairman Manish Sisodia has given administrative approval to projects worth 570 crore to ensure a “pollution-free Yamuna by 2025,” according to the Delhi government.
The budget for 2022-23 includes funds for these projects. The DJB will now issue tenders for these projects, according to officials.
Hundreds of crores have been spent on cleaning the river’s Delhi stretch over the years. However, according to the Delhi government’s own data, the water in this stretch is still unfit for bathing for the majority of the year, with the exception of Palla, where the river enters Delhi.
In the Delhi government’s 2022-23 budget, a sum of ₹6,710 crore was allocated for “water supply and sanitation”, which was 104% more than the sum allocated in the previous budget — ₹3,274 crore.
Despite the fact that only about 2% of the 1,400 km river flows through Delhi between Wazirabad and Okhla, the city accounts for 76% of the pollution load on the river, according to the former Yamuna Monitoring Committee formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Mr. Sisodia approved projects such as the construction of decentralised sewage treatment plants in several areas of Bawana and Mundka, as well as the laying of sewer lines in various unauthorised colonies and rural areas of Delhi, as well as the construction of two MGD (Million Gallons per Day) wastewater treatment plants in Bawana,
according to an official statement.