Reinvigorating Yamuna

Continuing with the existing approach will not help

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s new six-point action plan to clean the Yamuna by 2025 is essentially a rehash of strategies that have already been tried out in the past without much success. It involves stock measures like expansion of sewage treatment capacity, crackdown on industries discharging untreated wastes, provision of sewer connections in unauthorised settlements, and desilting of drains that flow into the river. It lacks some of the basic imperatives for sustaining river health. 

The Yamuna, evidently, is the lifeline of several urban centres located along its 1,400-kms route spanning five states — Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh