Air Date: Week of December 13, 2024

Patches of foam on the Yamuna River. This waterway, vital for Delhi's water supply, is severely polluted by untreated sewage, industrial waste, and agricultural runoff. This contamination makes the water unsafe for use, posing serious health risks. Despite its cultural significance, urgent action has yet to be mobilized to restore its water quality. (Photo: Jyotirmoy Gupta on Unsplash)

India’s Yamuna River is considered sacred by some devout Hindus, who bathe in the river to cleanse their sins. But around New Delhi it has become polluted with raw sewage and a thick off-white foam linked to laundry detergents. Susmita Sengupta of the Centre for Science and Environment joins Host Jenni Doering to talk about the causes and possible solutions to this ongoing river pollution crisis.

Transcript

BELTRAN: It’s Living on Earth, I’m Paloma Beltran

DOERING: And I’m Jenni Doering. India is home to mighty rivers that are the lifeblood of its economy and food system, and are worshipped by some as sacred. The holy Yamuna River serves some 57 million people but around New Delhi, it has become choked with a thick off-white foam that’s in part the result of detergents flowing untreated from laundries and households. And that’s just the most visible pollutant. Raw sewage is contaminating the Yamuna river with high levels of fecal coliform. Despite government warnings about the health risks, some Hindu worshippers are wading in anyway in hopes of cleansing their sins. Susmita Sengupta covers water pollution as Senior Program Manager for the Centre for Science and Environment and joins me now from Delhi. Welcome to Living on Earth!

SENGUPTA: Thank you. It's my pleasure.

DOERING: So first, what and where is the Yamuna River?

SENGUPTA: Yamuna River actually flows through Delhi. So it's very important for Delhi, because our major drinking water supply is coming from Yamuna. Yamuna is also a tributary of our National River, Ganga, and feeds into the other states, also. Uttar Pradesh in the downstream and Haryana in the upstream. But although it's just a very small fraction of Yamuna that is flowing into Delhi, 80% of the polluted stretch is in the capital city of Delhi.

DOERING: Wow. And we've seen these pictures... One of the most striking visuals we've seen is the foam that's covering parts of the river around New Delhi. What exactly is this foam?

SENGUPTA: Before telling that, let me tell you that Delhi as a city is 50% sewage, which means that the households they... Whatever sewage they are generating, only 50% of it is connected to the sewage treatment plants and can go there and get treated. So, remaining 50% is actually dumped in different open natural drains. We have more than 20 natural drains which are supposed to carry the rain water, but due to the absence of proper sewer in the city, the sewage also gets dumped into the same open natural channels along with the rain water. So I should tell you that for Yamuna pollution, the domestic sewage is a most important pollution that is entering into the river. The Ganga and its tributaries they get polluted due to industrial waste in the upper stretches, also in the lower stretches near Kanpur, which is actually marked as a pollution hub. But in Delhi, it's mostly the domestic sewage. Now, what happens laundries which actually use detergents, and there are also the houses which are using these detergents. So as a result, the phosphates that are generated are flowing into the river, and the foam is because of [those] phosphates.

DOERING: And how much farming is there around this region, and how much is fertilizer or other products from farms getting into the river as well?

SENGUPTA: There is a big part where farming is getting done on the Yamuna flood plains and chemical fertilizers on they are being used, although there is a good awareness about this fertilizer, and people are moving into organic fertilizers. But still, there is a huge part of farmers who believe in these chemical fertilizers, and as a result, some nitrates also get into this river due to the chemical fertilizers.

DOERING: So how is all of this pollution impacting the river's ecosystem and the communities that depend on it for their livelihoods?

SENGUPTA: The pollution in Delhi is very high. 80% of the pollution is happening only in Delhi. And Delhi, on the other hand, they actually get the whole of the drinking water supply from this river. Now, what is happening? If you get your river polluted, then the cost of the water treatment becomes high, very high. If raw sewage is entering, what happens is fecal coliform which is actually getting into the river... So it's very high. The permissible limit is 2500 MPN per 100 milliliter, but it's actually in a millions. The river enters into Delhi, near Palla, where you will find that the fecal coliform is slightly low, but not within the permissible limit. But as it enters into the city, will see the fecal coli form very high. And also, there are some religious programs around this river, because in India, we also worship the river. As a result, when people go and take a bath, it's not fit for open bathing also. The quality has deteriorated to that level that it's not permissible for outdoor bathing, so that also affects the health of the people.

DOERING: Did I just hear you correctly? You said that the levels of fecal coliform are in the millions when they really should be more in the thousands. And yet, as you mentioned, this river is considered sacred. Can you tell us more about the cultural practices and why people have such a close relationship with this river?

SENGUPTA: Reason behind that, that every city had a river or a pond or a lake around which the city grew up, and all the needs of that city for water actually came from this water body. So, since they were relying on these water bodies, they began worshiping it. So bathing -- Why bathing? Because people think, since they actually worship these water bodies, and since it's always compared to one's mother, so people think that when you take a dip in the river, then your sins are actually washed away.

DOERING: Now what are the health risks that we know about, of coming into contact with this foam and with this pollution in the river?

SENGUPTA: So, if people take dip in this river, then obviously there are skin problems, because, as I told you, the detergents are actually released, so you have a skin problem. And during swimming and taking a dip in the river, some part of water, if it gets into your intestine, then intestinal problems also take place. And because nitrates, phosphates, fecal coliform, you name it, and it's there.

DOERING: In your view, what are the most practical and impactful solutions to help restore the Yamuna River?

SENGUPTA: We are telling that in the set of recommendations, use open channels itself as your treatment areas, you locally treat it. Don't carry it to the centralized treatment systems, but locally, you use low cost, maybe a reed bed, you can use a reed bed to give you an example. You use a community of microbes to treat it locally, and you treat the water to a level which can be used for non potable purpose, so that you do not send any fecal coliform ladder or any polluted water into the river. You can have it at a community level. You can have it as an institutional level, so that you do not send polluted water to the river. And then secondly, we are saying that make your sewage treatment plants very close to the rivers, so that there is no chance of mixing of your whatever is coming out as treated from the sewage treatment plants and getting mixed with the untreated sewage in the river. And means we are promoting circular economy, where we are saying that whatever is coming out of your sewage treatment plants, the treated water, make use of it. Use that treated water, you can use it in your horticulture. You can use it in your park so there is no mixing, and all your treated water gets used up.

DOERING: Susmita Sengupta is the Senior Program Manager for the Center for Science and Environment. Thank you so much, Susmita.

SENGUPTA: Thank you for bringing in such an important topic on the table.

DOERING: By the way, India has a National Green Tribunal, also called its “Green Court” that handles environmental pollution complaints including the problems on the Yamuna River. Earlier this year the Green Court documented a lack of sewage treatment in the city of Agra on the banks of the Yamuna and fined the local infrastructure agency nearly 7 million US dollars for failing to provide adequate sewage treatment. The Supreme Court of India recently upheld the fine. And in November the Green Court penalized Delhi’s local water authority and municipal government, fining each around $3 million US dollars for letting sewage and stormwater drains mix and improperly covering drains, contributing to the Yamuna’s pollution.

 

Links

See photos of the foam in the Yamuna River

More about Decentralized Wastewater Treatment (DWWT) solutions

The Centre for Science and Environment - India website