Officials said the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) conceived the plan and implemented it with the help of the Irrigation, Flood Control Department and the Revenue Department.
“Fifteen teams have been deployed to collect the foam in the river. The exercise will continue till the existing foam is over,” an official said.
Officials said the idea involved the deployment of boats parallel to each other and then roped in foam.
However, an official termed it as a “temporary” measure.
“The problem will persist until the sewage treatment plants in Delhi are upgraded to meet the new standards. There is no immediate solution.”
Foam is just a manifestation of Yamuna’s water quality and is a long-standing issue, he said.
According to experts, the primary reason behind the formation of froth in Yamuna is the high phosphate content in detergents used in dyeing industries, dhobi ghats and households in Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Another reason is the poor quality of effluents discharged from Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) and Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs).
Wastewater with high phosphate content from occupied colonies and settlements reaches the river through unused drains. When water falls from a height in a barrage, the turbulence excites the phosphoric compounds in the river causing froth.
In some parts of the river, such as near the ITO and Okhla barrage, it has now become an annual occurrence in winter, when temperatures are lower and the river flows less.
On Monday, photographs and videos showing devotees performing puja in Yamuna with foam floating on the river surface on the occasion of Chhath puja triggered a political tussle between the ruling AAP and the BJP in Delhi.
While BJP leaders alleged that the AAP government did not allow Chhath celebrations on the Yamuna banks to hide the “pathetic” condition of the river, AAP’s Gopal Rai and Raghav Chadha blamed the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for the froth in the river. Convicted. ,
The 22 km stretch of Yamuna between Wazirabad and Okhla, which is less than 2 per cent of the 1,370 km length from Yamunotri to Allahabad, accounts for about 80 per cent of the pollution load in the river.
The Delhi government had in June banned the sale, storage, transportation and marketing of soaps and detergents in line with the latest BIS standards to check pollution in the river.
According to government data, on an average 24 out of 35 STPs in the national capital do not meet the prescribed standards for wastewater in the last one year. On an average only six out of 13 CETPs in industrial areas across Delhi comply with DPCC standards for wastewater.
Delhi generates around 720 million gallons of waste water a day.
The 35 STPs located at 20 locations across Delhi can treat sewage up to 597 MGD and are utilizing almost 90 per cent of their capacity.
In January, the Delhi government told the National Green Tribunal that upgradation of STPs in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi would take three to five years, depending on the availability of land and funds, to “significantly” reduce foaming in the Yamuna.
In a report submitted to the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti in July, the Delhi government had said that the Yamuna may not be suitable for bathing in the absence of minimum environmental flow in the river.
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