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dam-l LS: River of Death Runs Through Delhi



>>REUTERS
>>FEATURE - River of death runs through Indian capital
>>
>>INDIA: October 19, 1999
>>
>>NEW DELHI - A gut-wrenching reek fills the air outside a
>>cluster of tumbledown huts, a dead dog floats in a dirty
>>puddle and people defecate openly beside makeshift drains.
>>
>>Corpses, garbage, human waste: they all make their way into the river
>>Yamuna, which oozes its way past a string of slums in India's capital,
>>Delhi.
>>
>>"Our forefathers worshipped this river. Today it is killing us," says
>>Ramdin, a ragpicker who lives cheek-by-jowl with thousands of other
>>slum-dwellers.
>>
>>Named after the sister of the Hindu god of death, Yama, the Yamuna
>>was indeed once a river of mythical status. But today it breeds malaria,
>>cholera and jaundice, diseases that claim the lives of hundreds living on
>>its banks.
>>
>>"I gave a son to the river. Now I ask, when will it poison me?" says
>>Gangaram, whose son died of cholera last year.
>>
>>Environmentalists bewail the degradation of the 1,367-km (849-mile)
>>Yamuna - the largest tributary of India's holiest river, the Ganges, which
>>originates from a 6,387-metre (20,950-foot) high glacier in the
>>Himalayas.
>>
>>YAMUNA'S MUGHAL HEYDAYS
>>
>>"The Yamuna is dead. Criminally, we've killed a living being," says
>>Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment.
>>
>>Mediaeval India's Moslem rulers, the Mughals, built opulent palaces
>>through which the sparkling waters of the Yamuna gurgled. Emperor
>>Shah Jahan built the celebrated Taj Mahal, a marble shrine dedicated to
>>his dead queen, on its banks.
>>
>>Today, the Yamuna is poisoned with industrial waste from riverside
>>factories, fertilisers and pesticides from vast farming hinterlands and the
>>detritus of some 60 million people, who in turn use the river as a source
>>of drinking water.
>>
>>"The treatment plants receive water with considerable amounts of
>>pesticides and industrial heavy metals," says Mahendra Pandey, an
>>environment engineer at the state-run Central Pollution Control Board
>>(CPCB). "Our plants are not built to clean these wastes."
>>
>>A ban on the use of chemical fertilisers in agriculture over the past five
>>years has proved ineffectual. The food pressures of a giant population
>>and the lure of bumper crops mean that farmers sprinkle their fields
>>liberally with pesticides.
>>
>>"We are drinking water containing DDT and other toxic chemicals,"
>>Narain says.
>>
>>Pesticides and heavy metals are known carcinogens, and manifest
>>themselves in various diseases. Indian standards specify that they should
>>be absent in domestic water.
>>
>>"While you won't fall over and die the minute you drink the
>> contaminated water, the long-term harm is unavoidable," says
>>environment activist Rajat Bannerji.
>>
>>TWO BILLION LITRES OF SEWAGE EVERY DAY
>>
>>Delhi murders the river. Upstream of the capital, the river water is
>>barraged out to meet irrigation, industrial and domestic demand.
>>Nineteen drains pour more than two billion litres of untreated sewage
>>into this channel every day.
>>
>>According to an Environment Ministry report, the Yamuna's biological
>>oxygen demand - a measure of water pollution - is around 50 mg per
>>litre, some 17 times higher than accepted levels.
>>
>>Delhi's eight Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) have the capacity to clean
>>just half of the total outflow. But the Environment Ministry says the
>>city's dilapidated sewer system prevents even that amount from reaching
>>the plants.
>>
>>"While the existing STPs are starving for flow, plans are afoot to
>>construct new plants," the report said.
>>
>>Delhi's 25-km (16-mile), three-tier sewer system has been limping for a
>>decade. Much of the water that should be channeled from sewers to
>>treatment plants drains directly into the river.
>>
>>"The sewers are broken and the riverbed receives no water, only raw,
>>untreated sewage flows," says R.P. Sharma of the National River
>>Conservation Directorate.
>>
>>Last month the Supreme Court set November 1 as the deadline for all
>>Delhi-based industries to arrange proper treatment of their effluents or
>>face closure.
>>
>>Pollution multiplies further downstream as town after town defiles and
>>then tries to clean up with chemicals.
>>
>>"Since very little fresh water is generated between towns it is essentially
>>the previous town's sewage water that is cleaned and used," says R.C.
>>Triwedi, a senior CPCB scientist.
>>
>>Agra, the city of the Taj, is a glaring example. It uses more chlorine to
>>clean water than any other city in India, and it also has the highest
>>number of patients with water-borne diseases.
>>
>>"Agra's water is of very poor quality because it carries a large amount of
>>Delhi's sewage," Triwedi says.
>>
>>ACTION PLAN FAILS
>>
>>A much-hyped Yamuna Action Plan, which was started by the
>>government in April 1993, has barely made a difference. The plan
>>focused on building more sewage treatment plants.
>>
>>"The Yamuna Action Plan has failed, STPs don't help unless fresh water
>>dilutes the sewage," Minister for Environment and Forests Suresh
>>Prabhu told Reuters before he was named chemicals and fertilisers
>>minister in the new government.
>>
>>Experts say the technology used by the STPs is not suitable for Indian
>>conditions.
>>
>>"The present system has failed miserably. Its high requirement of
>>electricity cannot be generated and it does not clean fecal coliform," says
>>hydraulic engineer Veer Bhadra Mishra.
>>
>>Fecal coliform, a bacterial count, is very high in Indian rivers due to a
>>culture of mass bathing.
>>
>>"Uncountable numbers take a dip daily believing that their sins are
>>washed away," says Mishra.
>>
>>Legend has it that Krishna, the goatherd god of Hindu mythology,
>>punished the eight-headed serpent Kalia for poisoning the waters of the
>>Yamuna.
>>
>>Today, the Yamuna awaits another incarnation of Krishna.
>>
>>Story by Hindol Sengupta
>>
>>REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
>>
>>
>>
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