NGT team marks 3 major drains polluting Yamuna in Delhi

NEW DELHI: A team of the NGT’s Yamuna Pollution Monitoring Committee has identified three major drains polluting Yamuna, namely the east Delhi’s Shahdara and Balbir Nagar drain, Subhash Nagar drain in the west and southwest Delhi’s Najafgarh drain. Large quantities of solid waste and polythene was found dumped in the drains during the team’s probe.

The drains have been choked with municipal solid waste, polythene bags, construction and demolition waste, which is being dumped in the drains for years. The probe lasted a month following which the team has submitted appropriate recommendations to the NGT’s committee which oversees the revival of the river in Delhi.

“We visited a number of areas and found private contractors, residents and employees of municipal corporations dumping waste into or near drains. Locals were seen dumping domestic waste in polythene bags even as the surrounding residential areas have corporation’s garbage collection vans coming in,” said a member of the inspection team on the condition of anonymity.

The team also discovered in their inspection that interceptor drains aren’t functioning at their optimum capacity, which is one of the reasons of untreated waste disposal into the river.

Although the NGT has levied penalties on the dumping of untreated sewage in the river, the problem still persists.