The Hindu : New Delhi News : Jal Board hopeful of meeting Yamuna deadline

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Wednesday, Feb 06, 2008
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New Delhi

Jal Board hopeful of meeting Yamuna deadline

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: At the receiving end of public criticism and the Supreme Court’s reprimand for failing to clean up the Yamuna and, worse still, for being unable to specify the date by which the river would be cleaned, the Delhi Jal Board says it is confident of meeting the 2010 deadline for arresting the flow of untreated effluents into the river.

Pointing out that cleaning of the river was a process spread over time, Jal Board Chief Executive Officer Arun Mathur said the procedure involves a series of steps that include laying of new infrastructure and upgrading the existing ones.

“The process of cleaning the river involves planned intervention, and we are in the process of completing the works by the target dates. The first step is to prevent the flow of untreated sewerage into the river, for which we have assigned the work of laying interceptor sewers along the three major drains that contribute the bulk of the pollutants,” he said.

Referring to the confusion over the dates by which the Yamuna would be cleaned, Mr. Mathur said: “The process of laying interceptor sewers on the Najafgarh and the supplementary drains will be complete by 2010 and work on the Shahdara drain by 2012. Works related to the construction of new sewage treatment plants and augmentation of the existing STPs, interception of 13 small drains into the Bela Road and Ring Road trunk sewers and their rehabilitation will be complete by 2009, while the interceptor sewers will be functional by 2010. Once these major works are complete, the river water will begin to show improvement.”

The CEO said it was “unfair” to blame the Jal Board for the river’s condition as it is one of the many agencies that had been assigned the work of cleaning the river.

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