SHRI BAALU’S
ADDRESS AT THE WORKSHOP ON
"TOWARDS
A CLEANER YAMUNA"
The Environment and Forests Minister, Shri
T.R.Baalu has said that negotiations are on with the Japan
Bank of International Cooperation for the second phase of
the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP). Addressing a workshop on "Towards
a Cleaner Yamuna" here today, Shri Baalu said that these negotiations
are in an advanced stage. Asserting that Delhi will have a
major share in the second phase of the plan, Shri Baalu hoped
that his Ministry will be in a position in the near future
to offer an integrated package to Delhi, at a cost sharing
ratio of 70:30 between the Central Govenmnent and the Delhi
Government. He requested the Chief Minister of Delhi, Smt.
Sheila Dikshit to convey her Government’s consent to bear
the 30 per cent cost of the proposed Yamuna Action Plan Phase
II, a matter which is pending for sometime.
Briefly outlining the proposed approach to
be adopted for implementing the second phase of YAP in Delhi,
he said that we will have to ensure that all the 19 drains
which are discharging partly treated and partly untreated
waste water into the river are diverted. In the same way,
the 38 tributary drains of Najafgarh drain, which are responsible
for about 65 per cent of the pollution of Yamuna will have
to be tapped and diverted. Additional sewage treatment capacity
is to be put in place with the decentralized approach. The
emphasis will be on locating the new STPs as close to the
river mouth as possible so that the use of conveying pipes
is minimized. The dilapidated trunk sewerage system should
be rehabilitated and restored as early as possible so that
the entire captured waste water is fully treated.
Shri Baalu said that the second phase will
also focus on disinfection of treated sewage to ensure that
not only the organic pollution but also the bacteria caused
pollution is tackled fully. With these arrangements in place
and with the commissioning of all the 15 common effluent treatment
plants in the 21 industrial estates that are presently under
construction, the treated wastewater that will be discharged
into the river will be of safe quality. But, the Minister
said, a more important aspect is that we must have a minimum
fresh water flow into the river always. With an additional
perennial fresh water flow of 10 cumecs into the river, it
will be possible to restore the water quality of Yamuna back
to normal.
Shri Baalu recalled that the Government launched
the ambitious Yamuna Action Plan in 1993 in Haryana, Uttar
Pradesh and Delhi to clean the Yamuna river. In the first
phase of this Plan which has been completed, we have spent
Rs.480 crore. The share of Delhi in this Plan was only 4 per
cent. This was mainly for the reason that the Government of
Delhi had been implementing various works out of its own plan
funds.
The Minister added that in view of the priority
required to be given to clean Yamuna his Ministry took up
the extended phase of the Yamuna Action Plan. A Rs.166 crore
project was approved for Delhi in May, 2001. Under this project,
a focussed effort was made to deal with the growing problem
of sanitation in the unsewered areas of Delhi, particularly
the slums. The project consists of nearly 1000 community toilet
complexes besides several decentralized sewage treatment plants
and sewer cleaning equipment. The project is targeted to be
completed by the end of this month. He was sure that with
proper operation and maintenance of the assets created under
this project, it will be possible to provide some relief to
the large slum population. He hoped that this effort will
result in minimizing the population of Yamuna to a great extent.
The one-day workshop is being arranged by
the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Tata Energy Research
Institute (TERI).
