Despite missing multiple deadlines in the past, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal is back again with yet another promise to ‘clean Yamuna on a mission mode’. Once again, Arvind Kejriwal, in a press conference on Thursday, has announced a 6 point action plan to clean the Yamuna before the 2025 Assembly elections. The AAP supremo has guaranteed that he, along with the citizens of Delhi, would take a dip in the clean Yamuna river by the next Assembly elections.
For this, his government has started work at war footing and chalked out a 6 action point plan, which he has been monitoring personally. It is interesting that while Arvind Kejriwal has been the chief minister of Delhi for almost 7 years now, he asserted that the Yamuna River can’t be cleaned in 2 days. “It took 70 yrs 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. We have 6 action points over it, I’m personally monitoring it”, said the Delhi CM.
Detailed Plan to clean Yamuna on a Mission Mode. CM Arvind Kejriwal addressing an important Press Conference | LIVE https://t.co/sGH75tE2K7
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) November 18, 2021
“In the first action plan, we are working on sewer treatment on war-footing. First, new sewer treatment plants are being built. Second, the capacity of existing plants is being increased. Third, the technology of old treatment plants is being changed. “This will increase our sewage treatment capacity from around 600 million gallons of waste water a day to 750 MGD-800 MGD,” Kejriwal said.
He said the wastewater from Delhi’s four major drains namely- Najafgarh, Badshahpur, Supplementary and Ghazipur, falling in river Yamuna is being treated in-situ. The Delhi CM added that the wastewater in “jhuggi jhopri” clusters flows through stormwater drains into the Yamuna. These will be merged into the sewer network.
The AAP supremo said that his government would begin a crackdown on the industries discharging industrial waste into the Yamuna. He promised that his government will ensure that industrial wastewater is properly treated before it flows out of the factories.
He further said that in some areas people haven’t taken sewer connections. The AAP government in Delhi has decided to provide household connections in areas that have a sewer network. “Earlier, the consumers had to get the connection themselves. Now, we’ve decided to install sewer connections in such areas at nominal charges,” said Kejriwal.
The sixth step he said is the desilting and rehabilitation of sewers.
Arvind Kejriwal government sprays water in Yamuna to dissipate toxic foam, builds fence to stop it
Prior to this, Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government had come up with quite a logic-defying technique to dissipate the toxic foam in the river Yamuna. The AAP government had deployed boats and deputed some employees to sprinkle water on the Yamuna to dissipate the toxic foam. Social media was awash with images and videos showing Delhi Jal Board employees sprinkling water on the river Yamuna, which is full of water itself, to get rid of the toxic foam. Along with that, the Delhi government had also installed fences made from bamboo sticks with large holes as barricades to stop the foam.
The AAP Mantra- ‘extend deadlines’ to tackle the air-water crisis in Delhi
The air-water crisis is something that is not new in the national capital and all that the Kejriwal government has done so far to tackle the crisis is ‘extend the deadline.’ The series of issuing dates after dates for cleaning the heavily polluted river the Yamuna by the Delhi government has been going on since the year 2015.
Delhi’s Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in 2015 had promised to clean the Yamuna river within 5 years (by 2020). He had made this promise standing on the banks of the river along with his cabinet colleagues and senior Delhi government officials, who had taken part in the first ‘Yamuna Aarti’ held at the Kudesia Ghat.
As per a 2015 Mint report, Kejriwal had boasted, “We will revive Yamuna within five years,” adding that the government has a plan to stop the flow of drains in the Yamuna in the next 1-2 years.
Near seven years after AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal first promised to clean the Yamuna, the river continues to be engulfed in toxic foam to date.
