The Hindu : New Delhi News : A shot in the arm for ‘Save Yamuna’ drive

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Wednesday, Sep 19, 2007
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New Delhi

A shot in the arm for ‘Save Yamuna’ drive

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

A new study commissioned by World Bank echoes the concerns of the activists

NEW DELHI: The ongoing campaign in the Capital to save the Yamuna and its floodplains has received a shot in the arm with the emergence of a study commissioned by the World Bank for a Government project about six years ago. The study, which lay buried till recently, echoes the concerns of the activists fighting to save the floodplains.

“The floodplains [of the Yamuna] play a crucial role in ground water recharge and can be used for supplying drinking water to Delhi and for practicing agriculture…” says the report, which is also opposed to channelisation of the river.

Detrimental to ground water

“Channelisation of river Yamuna in the Delhi stretch will have a detrimental effect on the ground water recharge which occurs through the floodplains. In the three months of the monsoon period, approximately 80.71 per cent of the total water that enters the study area (Wazirabad to Okhla corridor) and flows through the river…and floodplains indicate that approximately 25 per cent of Delhi’s population drinking water needs can be satisfied by the ground water recharged annually through the floodplains,” the report says.

The document, prepared by the University of Delhi and the Institute of Economic Growth for a project of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and commissioned by the World Bank, recognises that hydrological functions account for 39.35 per cent of the total economic value and recommends that to maintain the ground water recharge potential of the floodplains “it is imperative to prevent any fresh civic structures to come up in these areas”.

“The report clearly cites that it is necessary to keep the area free from construction activity because fresh ground water resources present in the floodplains and connected aquifers in the city are replenished, but the Government has been careful to keep the report under wraps,” said S.A. Naqvi, co-convenor of the Citizens Front for Water Democracy and member of the ongoing Yamuna Satyagraha.

Questions to be answered

Claiming that the report’s “appearance” has bolstered their struggle to save the floodplains, Mr. Naqvi said: “There are a lot of questions that the Government needs to answer. Why was this report commissioned in 2000-01 not made public? Why were the recommendations not heeded?”

Mr. Naqvi went on to criticise the Rs. 18,000-crore project to channelise the river and the plans to make the riverfront “a grand space for social-cultural activities”.

“The World Bank’s report on ‘Valuation of ecological functions and benefits of wetland ecosystems along the Yamuna river corridors of Delhi region’ is a scientific document on the vital functions and benefits of the floodplains. It makes clear that channelisation will not only lead to reduction of the ground water reserve, but will completely stop the ground water recharge that occurs from the floodplains,” Mr. Naqvi said.

Pointing out the other major benefits of the wetlands, the report says: “It sustains fisheries, provides fodder, utilisable plant species, fuel wood, recreation and tourism.”

The report identifies civic construction, alteration in landscape, change in the nature of vegetation and over-exploitation of vegetation as “major threats to the efficient functions of the wetland ecosystems”.

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