During the Delhi elections of 2025, the dirt of the Yamuna river and its pollution emerged as a major issue. At the same time, the politics of the previous AAP government’s ‘poisonous Yamuna’ brought this issue to the top. After winning the election, Rekha Gupta from BJP has become CM and soon after taking oath she has come into action for cleaning Yamuna. CM reached Vasudev Ghat of Yamuna Bazar on Friday evening and performed Yamuna Aarti here. During this time, new ministers of Delhi government were also involved. Overall, the cinerio that is being built is such that the BJP is giving importance to the cleanliness of Yamuna and for this, Yamuna is going to start the action plan of cleanliness.
CPCB established in 1977, heavy pollution was revealed in chemical test
However, along with the history of pollution in the Yamuna river, the action plan for cleaning it has a long history. Even before the Yamuna cleaned the dirt, there have been many efforts, a large amount of government money has also been spent, but no effort has been concluded. Starting this, since the establishment of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in the year 1977, Yamuna water was being tested, chemical tests, etc. and it came to the public domain that Yamuna along with industrial waste Human is also contaminated with stools and urine.
Yamuna action plan was made in 1993
Yamuna action plan was made in 1993 to improve the condition of Yamuna river. Under this scheme, more than Rs 1514 crore has been spent during 25 years. If we talk about the Delhi government, then between 2018 and 2021, about 200 crores were allocated for cleaning the Yamuna. On paper, so much money has been spent to improve the condition of this river, which has no addition, but how much the condition of the river improves? This question makes the government machinery and the truth of its ‘honest’ effort.
What efforts were made to clean Yamuna, full details at a glance
1. Yamuna Action Plan was launched in April 1993. It consisted of 21 cities from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. The total expenditure of Rs 682 crore in the year 2002.
2. Yamuna Action Plan (2) – Total expenditure started in the year 2012 Rs 1,514.70 crore.
3. Yamuna Action Plan Phase (3) – Estimated expenditure Rs 1,656 crore. In this phase, along with renewing sewage treatment plant and trunk sewer in Delhi, the work of making them further upgraded.
4. From the year 2015 to 2023, the Central Government gave the Delhi Jal Board Rs 1,000 crore under the National Mission for Clean Ganga for cleaning the Yamuna and Rs 200 crore under Yamuna Action Plan-3.
5. The Aam Aadmi Party government spent Rs 700 crore on the cleanliness of Yamuna since the Delhi came to power in 2015.
6. The Ministry of Water Power gave Rs 2361.08 crore for 11 projects.
7. A High Level Committee was constituted by the NGT in January 2023 under the chairmanship of Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena for rejuvenation of Yamuna river. A cleanliness drive was started in some area of ​​Yamuna including Najafgarh drain. Later, on the orders of the Supreme Court, the Chief Secretary of Delhi was made the chairman of the committee.
Pollution increased with industrialization in the 1970s
In the 1980s, when Delhi’s industrialization took place and after that the population increased rapidly, pollution in Yamuna started to grow severely. In 1993, the government launched the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP), which made it clear that the condition of the river had become worrisome. However, historically, Yamuna water was considered potable in Delhi even in the 1950s, but in the 1970s, the level of water quality for the first time due to the indiscriminate flow of industrialization, urbanization and sewage in the 1970s is dangerous for the first time due to the indiscriminate flow of industrialization, urbanization and sewage Started falling.
Najafgarh’s largest pollution factor
In 1986, four researchers released research paper on the basis of investigation in the year 1986 regarding increasing pollution in Yamuna. In this research paper of HC Aggarwal, PK Mittal, KB Menon and MK Pillai, it was revealed that in 1978, when water samples were taken from four different places of Yamuna river in Delhi, then a huge amount of DDT was found in it. . The highest total DDT concentration was found at the downstream site in Wazirabad, where the drain of Najafgarh was found in the river water. In this drain, waste from other industries including a DDT factory was also found.
DDT dissolves in Yamuna water and death of fish
D.D.T. (DDT) is a dicloro-deficinel-trachlorethane a chemical pesticide, developed to kill insects in the 1940s. It was mainly used to control mosquitoes and other insects spreading diseases like malaria and typhus.
Similarly, in the year 2010, another researcher Anil Kumar Mishra also wrote a research paper on this subject. In this research paper published titled ‘A River About to Die: Yamuna’, Yamuna’s bad condition in Delhi was made the subject. There was a terrible mention of the pollution of Yamuna in the research paper and it was revealed that the pollution of the river is now becoming a threat to the fish living in its water.
This research paper mentions that big incident of 2002, which had put up the problem of pollution in Yamuna and also said that the water has now gone above the head. It is written in the report that the level of pollution in Yamuna can be understood from the incident of 13 June 2002, when thousands of dead fish were found in Sikandra (Taj Mahal region). After this, reports of similar incidents came from many areas till Bateshwar (78 km from Agra).
From Wazirabad to Okhla … 76 percent pollution in a distance of 22 km
The condition is that the 22 km of the Yamuna river from Wazirabad to Okhla (which is less than two percent of the length of this river) is the most polluted and about 76 percent of the total pollution of the river is in the region. Every day, through 18 large drains of the capital, more than 350 lakh liters of dirty water and united sewage are shed directly into the Yamuna. This dirty water also contains phosphate and acid, which makes poisonous foam in the water which is a serious concern.