Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said his government has prepared a six-point plan to clean the Yamuna river to bathing standards by February 2025.
He said the government is constructing new sewage treatment plants (STPs) as well as increasing the capacity of the existing ones and upgrading those.
“This will increase our sewage treatment capacity from around 600 million gallons of waste water a day to 750-800 MGD,” Kejriwal said.
He said the waste water from four major drains falling in the Yamuna — Najafgarh, Badshahpur, Supplementary and Ghazipur — is being treated in-situ.
The government will shut down the industries discharging industrial waste into the Yamuna, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader said.
Waste water in “jhuggi jhopri” clusters flows through storm water drains into the Yamuna. These clusters will be connected to the sewer network, the chief minister said.
The government will provide household connections in areas that have a sewer network. Earlier, the consumers had to get the connections themselves.
The city government has also started de-silting and rehabilitation of the sewer network.
“Our engineers and officers are hopeful that we will be able to clean the Yamuna by February 2025 with the implementation of the six-point action plan.
“Specific targets have been set for each action point and I will personally monitor the progress,” Kejriwal said.
Delhi generates around 720 million gallons of waste water a day. The 35 STPs at 20 locations across the city can treat up to 597 MGD of sewage and have been utilising around 90 per cent of their capacity.
