Delhi CM pledges to clean Yamuna by 2025, announces six-point action plan - key highlights

It took 70 years for the river Yamuna to become this dirty, it can't be cleaned within 2 days. I had promised people in these Delhi polls that it would be cleaned by the next polls. We've started work on war-footing. We have 6 action points over it, I'm personally monitoring it, the Delhi CM said.

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday pledged to clean the Yamuna river completely by 2025 and announced a six-point action plan for cleaning the holy river. The Delhi Chief Minister also promised to make the river fit for bathing and drinking by 2025. 

Announcing the plan, CM Kejriwal said, "It took 70 years for river Yamuna to become this dirty, it can't be cleaned within two days. "I had promised people in these Delhi polls that it would be cleaned by next polls. We've started work on war-footing. We have 6 action points over it, I'm personally monitoring it.''

Here are the key announcements made by Delhi CM -

-Delhi government will construct new sewage treatment plants and increase the capacity of the existing ones as well as upgrade those. This will increase sewage treatment capacity from around 600 million gallons of waste water a day to 750 MGD-800 MGD. Waste water from four major drains falling in the Yamuna -- Najafgarh, Badshahpur, Supplementary and Ghazipur -- is being treated in-situ.

- In the first action plan, the Delhi govt will work on sewer treatment on war-footing. First, new sewer treatment plants will be built. Second, the capacity of existing plants will be increased, Third, the technology of old treatment plants will be changed.

- Fourth, the government will shut down the industries discharging industrial waste into the Yamuna. Wastewater in "jhuggi jhopri" clusters flows through stormwater drains into the Yamuna. These will be connected to the sewer network.

- Fifth, in some areas people haven't taken sewer connections. The govt will install sewer connections in such areas at nominal charges. The government will provide household connections in areas that have a sewer network. Earlier, the consumers had to get the connection themselves.

The Delhi government has started de-silting and rehabilitation of the sewer network. Delhi government engineers and officers are hopeful that they will be able to clean the Yamuna by February 2025 with the implementation of the six-point action plan. Specific targets have been set for each action point and the CM will personally monitor the progress.