New Delhi: Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Wednesday approved a project to provide sewer line connections to three villages and 29 unauthorized colonies of Wazirabad, Bhalswa and Swaroop Nagar, which will help reduce the pollution load of the Yamuna. The Rs 77-crore project will benefit around five lakh people, according to a statement. A 22-km stretch of the Yamuna between Wazirabad and Okhla in Delhi, which is less than 2 per cent of the river’s length, accounts for about 80 per cent of its pollution load.
Unused wastewater from unauthorized colonies and slum clusters and poor quality treated wastewater discharged from Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) are the main reasons behind the high level of pollution in the river. There are a total of 1,799 unauthorized colonies in Delhi. Of these, 725 have been connected to the sewer network, while work is underway on 573 others.
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Sewage from unauthorized colonies not connected to sewer network flows directly into Yamuna, adding to its pollution load. The Delhi government has promised to clean the Yamuna to bathing standards by February 2025.
The river can be considered suitable for bathing if the biological oxygen demand (BOD) is less than 3 milligrams per liter and the dissolved oxygen is more than 5 milligrams per liter. BOD, an important parameter to assess water quality, is the amount of oxygen required by aerobic microorganisms to decompose organic matter present in a water body. A BOD level of less than 3 milligrams per liter is considered good.
(With inputs from PTI)