Delhi Jal Board reached out to 1.5 lakh students to raise awareness about keeping Yamuna clean

NEW DELHI: In its public outreach programme to clean the Yamuna that began two years ago, the Delhi Jal Board has reached out to approximately 1.5 lakh students and nearly 2.5 lakh people in the national capital, sources said on Monday. The areas where the outreach programmes were conducted in the last two years are Okhla, Kondli and Rithala.

According to a source in the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the board held 'Yamuna Ki Pathshala' awareness campaigns in 604 schools in the last two years.

"The Yamuna Action Plan Phase III is a three-year initiative. We reached out to approximately 1,50,000 students across 604 schools in Delhi. The DJB also reached out to around 2,48,000 community individuals to make them aware of how to make the Yamuna clean as a part of the initiative," a DJB source told PTI.

The DJB is the executing agency for the Yamuna Action Plan Phase III project, which is aimed at reducing the pollution load in the river in Delhi by treating domestic wastewater, for which the Centre received funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) in 2011.

The project also focuses on rehabilitating trunk sewers, rising mains and existing wastewater treatment plants, improving the treated effluent quality to tertiary level, constructing a new wastewater treatment plant at Okhla, and instructional strengthening and capacity building.

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"We included self-help groups to reach out to community individuals wherein we taught them how they can contribute to keep the Yamuna clean. We held events, street plays, discussions with the community individuals as well as the students," the DJB source said.

The 22-kilometre stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi between Wazirabad and Okhla, which is less than two per cent of the river's length of 1,370 kilometres from Yamunotri to Allahabad, accounts for around 80 per cent of the pollution load in the river. Untapped waste water from unauthorised colonies and slum clusters, and poor quality of treated waste water discharged from WWTPs are the main reasons behind high levels of pollution in the river.

Delhi generates around 720 million gallons of waste water daily. The 35 sewage treatment plants located at 20 site across Delhi can treat up to 597 MGD of sewage and have been utilising around 90 per cent of their capacity.