If Delhi had preserved Nature’s gift…

“It took 70 years for river Yamuna to become this dirty, it can’t be cleaned within 2 days. I had promised people in these Delhi polls that it would be cleaned by the next polls. We’ve started work on war-footing.” said Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday.

“We will be implementing a six-point action plan to clean the Yamuna river which we are hoping to complete by February 2025”, he added.

Pollution levels of Delhi have been in the news especially post Diwali. Though that is with air, the quality of living in Delhi comes into question with pollution levels rising.

Now with the Six-point Action Plan put into action by the CM, firstly the Delhi Government is going to build new sewer treatment plants. The existing plants’ capacity will be increased, and newer technology will be brought to the old plants.

The CM said that waste from Jhuggi Jhopri clusters that goes into rivers will now be merged into sewers. “In some areas people haven’t taken sewer connections, we’ve decided to install sewer connections in such areas at nominal charges”, he said, and the plan also involves desilting and rehabilitation of sewers. “Specific targets have been set for each action point and I will personally monitor the progress,” Kejriwal said.

Mission already accomplished !:

But would you believe that the initiative that Delhi’s CM has taken in his hands today was already executed by Nature, at a much faster pace in May 2020, during the lockdown?

NDTV and various reputed media reported that due to the lockdown, industrial activities were shut and other trade operations slowed in Delhi. This allowed the River Yamuna to clean the pollution by itself.

NDTV said that two months of the Coronavirus lockdown have done what successive governments could not do in 25 years with over Rs. 5,000 crore at their disposal-clean up the Yamuna river.

“I have been associated with the Yamuna Action Plan since the year 2000 and I have never seen the river this clean. The level of pollution reduces further and its water becomes clearer near Etawah; here the water from Chambal river further dilutes the pollution. I am amazed at the effect the lockdown has had on all rivers,” said Dr.Rajeev Chauhan, a conservation officer with the Wildlife Institute of India-Dehradun, who has been studying the Yamuna river for the past 30 years.

Kejriwal’s effort needs to be applauded. He has taken a good initiative but if his government had preserved the gift of nature, the energy and funds could be utilized to reduce the air pollution that is being in continuous high levels in Delhi in a much better way.