The total funds of Rs 140 crore have been allocated by the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG)and the Delhi government for river Yamuna cleaning since January out of which Rs 108.31 crores have been utilised, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.
Under the Namami Gange Programme (NGP) for the rejuvenation of river Yamuna, 9 projects have been sanctioned for the creation of a sewage treatment capacity of 1,268 MLD at a cost of Rs 1,951 crore.
The cleaning of rivers is an ongoing process and this Ministry is supplementing the efforts of the states for checking the rising level of pollution of river Yamuna by providing financial assistance to states of Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi besides Uttar Pradesh.
The various projects aimed at rejuvenation of river Yamuna are in different stages of planning/construction/ completion and close monitoring is being done at multiple levels to ensure timely completion.
“The water quality of the Yamuna River at Palla, Nizamuddin Bridge, and Okhla Barrage in Delhi is being monitored monthly by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the National Water Quality Monitoring Programme (NWMP),” Minister of State for Jal Shakti Raj Bhushan Choudhary said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
As per the information provided by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the estimated sewage generation in Delhi is 3,596 million litres per day (MLD). The total installed capacity of 37 operational sewage treatment plants (STPs) of DJB is 3,474 MLD.
As of June, the capacity utilization of these STPs was 2,955 MLD of which 2,014 MLD of treated sewage from 23 STPs complied with the discharge standards prescribed by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) and 14 STPs are non-compliant to DPCC norms.
Further, about 641 MLD of sewage remains untreated and enters the river or drainage network, contributing to pollution in the Yamuna.
Further, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) conducts annual inspections of Grossly Polluting Industries (GPIs) operating in the Yamuna River basin in NCT-Delhi, which have the potential to discharge into the Yamuna and its tributaries.
These inspections are carried out by joint teams comprising officials from technical institutes such as IITs, NITs, and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC)/State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs)/Pollution Control Committees (PCCs).
During the last inspection conducted by CPCB in 2024, a total of 189 GPIs located along the main stem of the Yamuna River were inspected. It was estimated that these GPIs discharge approximately 1.33 MLD of treated wastewater, carrying a pollution load of 0.046 TPD in terms of BOD.
Out of the 189 GPIs inspected, 158 were found operational, while 31 were self-closed. Among the 158 operational GPIs, 49 were found non-complying with respect to discharge norms or lacked valid consent to operate.
These 49 non-complying GPIs were issued directions by the concerned SPCBs/PCCs, including 40 show-cause notices and 9 closure directions.