Ammonia Levels Rise In Yamuna: Delhi’s Water Woes Worsen As Govt Passes The Buck

Yamuna river (left) | Picture courtesy: Special arrangement | Contaminated Yamuna water supplied to Delhi residents (right) | Picture courtesy: @dhaani1986 | Twitter

Dhaani Lorwaal, a techie residing in Madangir in South Delhi, posted a picture of contaminated water being supplied to the residents of Delhi by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB). “May I know who is taking care of this water supply in this area? Do you guys want to kill us by supplying this drinking water? Do you want us to drink it?” Lorwaal tweeted.

Satish Sinha, Associate Director of Toxics Link speaks to The Probe’s Lalit Sharma.

The Delhi Jal Board is facing the heat for providing contaminated water to its residents. The Board had recently informed the residents that pollution in the Yamuna had increased significantly, with Ammonia levels rising above 5 ppm. Toxics Link, an NGO that brings toxics-related information to the public domain, had previously conducted several studies on the Yamuna River. Satish Sinha, Associate Director of Toxics Link, states that it is unfortunate that the Delhi Jal Board has still not developed the capacity to treat higher ammonia levels in the water.

Sinha adds that the Yamuna River is not an isolated case. “The river water quality in most parts of the country is problematic. There is a degradation in water quality. Many affluents are not treated fully, and some are only partially treated. There are different contamination levels, and we are yet to address this issue. But if you see across the world, the respective governments have cleaned their polluted rivers. In Germany, the Rhine river was cleaned, and in London, the Thames was cleaned up. We as a nation also need to look at our country’s rivers and see how we can clean them up and find a permanent solution.”

Rawat notes that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) must be held accountable for not holding the polluters accountable. “Many years ago, Delhi was getting its water from Drain number 2, which is in Panipat. By the time the water reached Delhi, there were only negligible pollutants. However, after 2005, the water started getting supplied from Drain Number 6, which is in Sonipat and joins the Yamuna River in Palla. Several industries in this region are dumping wastewater into Drain Number 6. But no one is really holding these industries accountable. The CPCB has a pathetic track record of monitoring, regulating and penalising these industries. They lack human resources, as was mentioned in a Parliament debate earlier. Many posts in states are still lying vacant.”

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that the Delhi government will soon set up treatment plants to treat higher ammonia levels. But there are not many buyers for these assurances. “These are empty promises. This is not the first time ammonia levels have increased in the Yamuna, and this has been going on for so many years. What was the Delhi government doing all this while?” asks Santanu, a resident of South Delhi.

“Our treatment plant only has the capacity to treat around 1 ppm of ammonia level. So, what do you do when the ammonia levels are higher than 5 ppm? Technology upgradation to treat higher levels of ammonia may be one solution, but perhaps we must also look at the source identification and plug loopholes there. They must regularly conduct periodic mapping of ammonia levels from these sources,” says Piyush Mohapatra, Senior Programme Coordinator at Toxics Link.

Kataria adds that the ammonia levels in Yamuna are expected to skyrocket in the days to come. “Though the limit for the presence of ammonia in drinking water is 0.5 ppm worldwide, in Delhi, it is sometimes 16 times higher than the permissible limits. As the summer progresses, this problem is expected to worsen as there will be no rain, and because of heat, water gets concentrated, and the ammonia levels will steadily rise.”

(The Probe has approached Delhi Water Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj for a response. This article will be updated once we receive a response from the minister.)