LG: Treat 95% of Delhi’s daily sewage generation by June
Saxena said this in remarks made on Friday, while he was chairing the fourth meeting of a high-level committee on rejuvenation of the Yamuna, officials present at the session said on Saturday
Lieutenant governor VK Saxena has called for the treatment of Delhi’s daily sewage generation to be ramped up from the current 75% to 95% by the end of June, adding that there is a need to stabilise biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) levels in the Yamuna and bring them down.
Saxena said this in remarks made on Friday, while he was chairing the fourth meeting of a high-level committee on rejuvenation of the Yamuna, officials present at the session said on Saturday.
The committee was formed by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) by a January 9 order and has been tasked with looking into Yamuna’s pollution, and taking corrective action to ensure the river’s water quality shows an improvement in a time-bound manner.
At the Friday meeting, Saxena reviewed the action-taken report on eight specific topics, which included sewage treatment, trapping of drains, construction of sewerage networks in unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters, and the rejuvenation of Yamuna floodplains.
Asking officials to speed up Delhi’s sewage treatment capacity, Saxena said at present, the Capital generates 768 million gallons a day (mgd) of sewage, but only 580mgd (75.5%) is treated.
“We need to ensure treatment of 727 MGD (95%) of sewage by June this year, and aim at achieving a total treatment capacity of 814mgd by December and 964.5mgd by June next year. For this, construction of three new STPs (sewage treatment plants) at Okhla, Delhi Gate and Sonia Vihar, construction of 40 new DSTPs (decentralised sewage treatment plants) at various locations, rehabilitation of three existing STPs and upgradation of 18 existing STPs is being monitored by this committee. We have also allotted land for this purpose within one month, which had been pending for the last eight years,” he said.
An official present at the meeting said that currently, of the 580mgd sewage treated, 267mgd is mandatorily returned back into the Yamuna, 90mgd is used for horticultural purposes, and there is a proposal for 100mgd to be taken for tertiary treatment at Palla and Coronation Pillar.
“The remaining 123mgd will be used for filling Najafgarh Lake, Smriti Van Lake and water bodies at NTPC Eco Park,” the official said, declining to be named.
Others present included Delhi chief secretary Naresh Kumar, officials from the Union ministries of Jal Shakti and environment, forest and climate change, and officials from the Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Development Authority, and Delhi Pollution Control Committee, among others.
The LG said, “It is essential that all works must be undertaken in a mission mode with the goal to achieve tangible improvement in the pollution levels in the river by June 30. I have learnt that ever since efforts on cleaning of Najafgarh drain have started, BOD levels in the drain has shown a consistent decline. The same is also getting reflected in the BOD levels in the Yamuna at ISBT, after the Najafgarh drain meets the river. The levels, however, were fluctuating on a month to month basis. We need to stabilise the BOD and also bring it further down.”
The LG also said that by June 30, 263 unauthorised colonies in the Capital will be connected to the sewer network.
A second official at the meeting, on condition of anonymity, said, “Similarly, 71 and 239 colonies will get sewer networks by September and December this year, respectively. Of the 1,799 unauthorised colonies in Delhi, 1,320 will accordingly have sewer networks by December.”
The second official also said that out of 44 major sub-drains falling into Najafgarh drain that have been identified for trapping, 17 have already been trapped and the remaining will be trapped by October.
“Similarly, out of 30 sub-drains falling into the supplementary drain, 13 drains had been trapped and the remaining will be trapped by October,” the official said.