Short Note on Yamuna Pollution

River Yamuna after being originated for Yamunotri covers a passage of 1376 km before joining the river Ganga at Allahabad. The river has been divided into five segments from the point of view of pollution level.

  1. Himalayan Segment from Yamunotri to Tajewala, 172 km, nonpolluted zone.
  2. Upper segment from Tajewala to Wazirabad, 224 km polluted by agrochemicals used in Haryana.
  3. Delhi segment from Wazirabad barrage to Okhla barrage, 22 km, highly polluted zone due to Delhi effluent discharges.
  4. Eutrophicated segment from Okhla barrage to join place with river Chambal, 490 km, highly polluted with microbes and with highest BOD, Mathura and Agra covered in the segment.
  5. Mixed segment from Chambal Sangam to Allahabad 468 km, pollution level decreases.

The pollution problem in Delhi segment is acute and highly dangerous. About 1900 million liter sewage is discharged every day in this segment of 22 km. The total treatment capacity of Delhi plants is about 1270 ml/day i.e. about 630 ml//day of it is still discharged directly to river Yamuna without any treatment. Moreover, the treated water is also not pure. It remains partially untreated. Further 2800 ml effluents day are discharged into the river by eleven main nullahs which result in an increase of 200 BOD and 160 tones suspended solids. Najafgarh and Shahdara nullahs are most problematic.

In 1993, in the second step of Ganga Action Plan (GAP) of Government of India, Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) was also taken up. It included 127 working projects of which 48 are in UP, 76 in Haryana and 3 in Delhi. After 13 years of works on these projects, the pollution problem still remains serious. Pollution is further nurtured due to barrages built in Delhi, Mathura and Agra for civic water supply and number of canals made for irrigation. All this has made river Yamuna as sewage vahine.

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