Every day at the crack of dawn, 66-year-old Asresar Saini walks along the length of Kalindi Kunj ghat till he reaches the Yamuna. The river, which is fairly clean and devoid of any odour when it enters the Capital at Palla, deteriorates drastically by the time it touches Kalindi Kunj-Okhla stretch, before exiting Delhi.
The water here is inky black, choked with pollutants and stuffed with garbage, and the air is thick with ammoniacal pungent stench of decay. Frothy clumps float on its surface. Till now the river has travelled around 50km through Delhi, and effluents from 20 out of 22 major drains have been injected in its channel.
Saini fills a bucket of this toxic water and bathes in it — just like he has for the last 30 years while living along the Yamuna’s banks. There was a time, he remembers, when the river’s water would not make his skin itch. “We would drink this water and bathe happily at the same spot. Now, while people still bathe here, it’s not out of desire, but out of habit and necessity. The water, particularly the froth, when it comes in contact with your skin, instantly makes it itch. I am used to it now though,” Saini says, scratching his shoulders.
It’s at the same ghat that Saini, who hails from Muzaffarpur in Bihar, celebrates Chhath Puja every year.
A growing, bustling Capital has over the years seen industries expand and Delhi’s sewage generation shoot up rapidly — overwhelming the city’s drains that carry filth to such an extent that the river, pure and pristine in its upper reaches, resembles a drain too.
Like Saini, thousands of Purvanchalis wade into the same river water during the festival, enduring what Saini does every day. “Of course I celebrate Chhath. How can I not? We need Yamuna ji to pray, but the river and its water is akin to a drain. There is no choice,” he says.
In its nearly 50km course through Delhi, while the stretch between Palla and Wazirabad is fairly clean with the water meeting bathing standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), an onslaught of 22 major drains means much of Delhi’s sewage and effluents enter the river’s water by the point where the Okhla barrage is built. A few kilometres downstream, the river, exits the Capital at its worst — faecal coliform levels over are 6,000 times the permissible limits and the biological oxygen demand (BOD) is over 20 times.
Frothing: Symptom of a larger malaise
As the blackened river water tumbles from the 800-yard-long Okhla barrage, connecting Delhi to Noida, its churning leads to the formation of white foam. The 19th century barrage first led to the development of southeast Delhi, and later Noida in Uttar Pradesh, and has a bird sanctuary nearby — but this also where the Yamuna is at its worst.
Though the glacier-like froth segments come under the spotlight around Chhath festival, the scale of frothing goes dangerously up as temperatures dip. The phenomenon starts after monsoon is over and as temperatures drop around October-November and the bubbles become more stable, and the magnitude of the problem increases. The authorities deploy silicone dioxide-based anti-foaming chemical agents around Chhath to suppress it — akin to tackling the symptoms rather than the disease.
Froth formation is a symptom that indicates the river in this stretch is effectively “dead”, say experts.
Bhim Singh Rawat, an activist with the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers, and People (SANDRP) said froth forms only when the river has a toxic mix of detergents, sewage and effluents. “By this point, we have had dyes, detergents, toxic industrial waste and Delhi’s sewage entering the river in large quantities. The froth is a clear indication of a dead river.”
Satellite images reveal two major froth hot spots between Wazirabad and Okhla — the first near the DND flyway and the second at Kalindi Kunj.
A DJB official explained that the froth bubbles are caused due to soap-like surfactant molecules, and when water falls from a height in the nearby Okhla barrage, it leads to churning of polluted water, as well as increased frothing. There are biological, physical and chemical causes behind the presence of surfactant molecules. It can be due to detergents and surfactants in untreated domestic sewage, pollutants from industries, dhobi ghats as well as materials released by decomposition of dying water hyacinth weeds in the Okhla barrage. “It needs long-term planning. When the river water will get better, this phenomenon will also go down,” the DJB official said, asking not to be named.
Rawat criticised the government’s sluggish response to contamination evidence. “In 2021, the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) prohibited detergents and soaps that failed to meet BIS standards to curb froth formation in the Yamuna. However, the ban remains largely unenforced. The surfactants from these detergents are a major contributor to froth buildup, depleting any remaining oxygen in the river,” Rawat said.
Along the frothy river in Kalindi Kunj lives 65-year-old boatman Lambu, whose livelihood has been in jeopardy. “I have lived here for 26 years. Earlier, we would get ample fish but now, the river is practically dead and even fish cannot survive in this water… Now we rely on menial jobs during the day to make ends meet. I have seen many governments come and go. They all made promises but the water has only worsened.”
Delhi’s drains: From feeding to killing
The stretch of the Yamuna beyond Wazirabad sees 22 major drains reaching the Yamuna. However, the role of these drains has drastically changed over the years. Historically, they were designed to manage stormwater, wastewater, and rainwater run-off. They helped control flooding by directing excess water away from residential areas, industrial zones, and agricultural lands, ensuring the city’s sanitation and drainage needs were met.
Today, however, the river doesn’t get just stormwater but also an overwhelming amount of chemical waste, untreated sewage and garbage from these drains.
The Najafgarh drain, which used to be called Sahibi river, is now its biggest pollution load carrier, adding 69.77% of waste water discharge, followed by Shahdara drain (16.12%), Barapullah drain (4.92%), Power House drain (4.16%), ISBT drain (1.47%), Sen Nursing Home drain (1.47%) and Maharani Bagh drain (1.03%,) according to a DPCC report last month.
A government official said that the Najafgarh and Shahdara drains are so big that it is technically not possible to divert them, and so sub-drains that meet these two drains are being diverted. Downstream of Kalindi Kunj, the last of these drains — Shahdara and Tughlakabad drains also meet the river, compounding the misery further.
The DPCC report from February — the latest water quality data for the river — shows that faecal coliform levels at Asgarpur, where the river exits Delhi, reached 16 million units per 100 millilitres, which is 6,400 times the permissible limit set by CPCB. This marks the highest recorded contamination since December 2020, when it was 1.2 billion/100ml. In comparison, the safe standard is 2,500 units per 100 ml. The figure was 1,300 at Palla – well within this limit.
Faecal coliform, a measure of bacteria from human waste in water, is an indication of sewage polluting the river. Faecal coliform levels have been rising steadily in the last few months, jumping from 8.4 million units per 100 ml in December to 16 million units/100ml in February. Meanwhile, Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) levels, which indicate the oxygen required for aquatic life, worsened significantly. The higher the BOD, the more difficult it is for aquatic life to survive. While the safe BOD limit is 3mg/l, it was 6mg/l at Palla. Data showed that while BOD standards were not met at any of the eight points from where samples were lifted, it was recorded at 35mg/l at Kalindi Kunj and shot up to 72mg/l at Asgarpur – 24 times the safe limit, when the river leaves Delhi.
The way forward
Experts have long called for a holistic approach to be followed when it comes to fixing the river.
The first step is ensuring no sewage or effluents reach the Yamuna. Delhi’s Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) are the primary tools in its attempt to clean the Yamuna. Delhi has an estimated sewage generation of 3,600 MLD (million litre per day) or 792 MGD (million gallons a day — an underestimate, according to experts).The city estimates that around 80% of its water supply (990 MGD) comes back as wastewater. Delhi has 37 STPs at 20 locations which have an installed capacity to treat only 667 MGD water.
The Delhi economic survey underlines that the city’s capacity utilisation is only 565 MGD and the gap in sewage treatment is 227 MGD which ends up in drains, water bodies and the Yamuna. Experts have pointed out that this estimated sewage generation does not take into account the groundwater being used by the people.
Even the 565 MGD waste water, which gets treated before being released in the river, suffers from underperforming STPs. CPCB prescribes faecal coliform rate to be at 230 most probable number (MPN)/100ml or less, the levels were found to be over 10 times this limit, even post-treatment. The highest value of 2,400 was recorded at the Ghitorni STP, followed by 1,800 Keshopur-2, 1,700 at Vasant Kunj -2, Delhi gate and Mehrauli, the January report states.
Second, the drains carrying industrial waste and sewage into the river in the 22km urban section of Delhi need to be tapped and the untreated effluents need to be carried to the STPs and CETPs. According to a Delhi government report dated February 12, 10 drains have been tapped, two are partially tapped, flow from eight is yet to be diverted, and two are too large to be tapped and will need an alternative strategy.
Third, the river needs to flow with an assured minimum e-flow and its floodplains be protected to make it alive again. Experts point out that it has been reduced to sewage pools segregated by barrages and renegotiation of the 30-year Yamuna water sharing agreement should not be a wasted opportunity.
Rawat said while increasing the environmental flow of the river is a start, at least two decades have passed with inaction from authorities on sewage and effluents. “All sorts of pollutants continue to enter the river each day and this is not just within Delhi, but from neighbouring Haryana and Uttar Pradesh too. The quantum of sewage actually reaching the Yamuna is still unknown, as it is based on the drinking water figures for Delhi. However, it does not account for the illegal water supply in the Capital.”
Pankaj Kumar, another Yamuna activist, said several governments have come and gone, but promises remain on paper. “We have STPs, but they are not functioning as per the standards required and even the treated water being released from there is not clean. In addition to the water, sludge is being released into the river, which is a sign that these STPs are not functioning properly,” said Kumar.
Meanwhile Saini, who lives near Kalindi Kunj ghat, continues to bathe in the water and often reminisces about the river he lived next to 30 years ago. “If Yamuna ji gets her life back, so will our city.”