Water-logging in the city a sight during every monsoon

This study of Delhi’s Drainage System was last published in 2017 and earlier in 2010. It gets revised after each major development. Why the need to revise it? Please read below.

A city like Delhi which draws its water from the river, follows a cycle similar to the Hydrological Cycle of Nature.  Water is supplied by the municipalities to the residents.  Some of the water is utilized for drinking purposes, some for watering the gardens and some for cleaning, washing and bathing and some for flushing the toilets.  The latter two ideally enter the sewage system.  The rain that falls over the city enters the storm water drains which empty into huge nullahs, which in turn empty into the river Yamuna.

This system can also enable rain water harvesting because the storm water drains can be utilized for water harvesting in an organized fashion.  But the storm water drainage system of Delhi is complex owing to a combination of natural and man made drainage systems – drainage basins which naturally drain, storm water drains along the roads and a new phenomenon of combined sewer cum storm water drains created as a bypass arrangement for blockage sewer lines.  It is this that has resulted in polluting the storm water drainage system.  As a result, the nullahs which used to run with rain water during monsoons now carry only sewage.

What was also being done, using Commonwealth Games as a shield, was to cover up the nullahs.  Now, this is really like putting dirt under the carpet.  This reminds me of a fable, in which, when a rabbit is confronted by pointing a gun at it, all it does is to cover its eyes with its ears.  The rabbit thus thinks that the threat no longer exists, but, it gets shot in any case! When you hide the threat you don’t necessarily solve the problem you only ignore it … until it becomes bigger.  Even if some sewage was reaching the nullahs, the rain water used to ensure that the viscous or solid waste content was appropriately diluted and thus the effluent reaching the river would not be as heavily polluted as it is today.

When residents cover or even fill up the storm water drains outside their houses to help park their cars or when the sweepers  also dump garbage into the open drains, it prevents rain water from reaching the nullahs and ultimately the river.  Blocking a drain should be treated as an offence, because it is equivalent to sabotaging a public utility on which tax payers money has been spent. Historically it is said that the drainage system of Old Delhi was largely developed by the Mughals whereas of New Delhi by the British. It used to work fine until it was vandalized by us humans.

However about 4 years ago a young Municipal Councillor, a debutante, Shikha Rai, took an initiative in all of the blocks in Greater Kailash-1, which appeared to have worked. She developed a new workable storm water drainage system which has worked flawlessly in the last 4 years.

This experiment was so successful that it was further extended and replicated in her entire constituency to Kailash Colony, East of Kailash etc. That’s saying a lot, considering that no earlier government had succeeded. Every year drains were desilted before monsoons. Gradually it became a losing game because desilting became less regular and also, as explained earlier, not feasible.

Shikha Rai re-dug and re-built the entire drainage system. It was specially tricky because the crossover bridges built by residents to enter their driveways, had to be cut and new crossover ramps were built by SDMC on each driveway of each house. The storm water drains were covered by porous RCC slabs, so that cars can be parked and rain water can flow into the drains and road muck was restrained. The effect was really dramatic. Every monsoon the streets, which were ankle or knee deep with water earlier, got drained away much faster.

The Simplistic looking RCC Perforated Tiles Interspersed with removable lid for de-siltation

If that is the case, then why did one wait so long to report this. The reason is caution. Firstly I did not want to give a thumbs up without seeing the system work. Secondly one had to wait for the desilting to take place, to ascertain that the Porous tiles are removable and silt can be extracted. This exercise was done partially by SDMC at a few places and silt was removed a few days ago.

De-silting of Drainage System in Greater Kailash 1 done by SDMC in October 2021

However, one would like to caution the authorities, that like all successful arrangements the system needs to be maintained regularly for it to work properly. Desilting must be done as an when required and the Porous tiles replaced whenever they break. Also it was observed that the drain holes in many of the tiles had got blocked with the silt and muck. The whole system will fail if these holes are not cleared periodically. The plus points are:

As a footnote, one would like to explain that this technical analysis should be treated just so – an evaluation based on observation over 4 years. It is important to acknowledge a successful initiative because while we point out flaws in public utilities, we will be failing in our duty if we don’t give the good news.

Another interesting phenomenon, prevalent not only in Delhi but in most cities, is, that garbage is always dumped near the river.  Therefore, when the rains come, that garbage too finds its way into the river.  Now the river in Delhi does not spring out at the city itself but comes down from the Himalayas collecting water and effluent along the way.  For the river to flow smoothly, the unobstructed route through which it flows ensures how much water can pass.  Silting of course reduces the depth and the width of the river. But the problem is compounded by man. The tragedy of Yamuna is that when the city was faced with constraints of space, the authorities that be, allowed construction in the river bed, thus reducing the cross section of the river and creating the situation for future disaster.

Earlier in the river bed, during the non monsoon period, agricultural farming used to take place. This was in no way harmful; because when the rivers ran full during the monsoons; it used to leave a coat of fertile silt on the farm beds and the greenery thus grown also acted as a lung for the city.  Now, the infrastructure developments on the river front, with Akshardham temple and games village coming up, will encourage others to encroach into the river and ultimately destroy the hydrological cycle of the city.

The matter is not closed, Jury is still out regarding the Sewage System and Garbage Handling. One would request the readers to read the earlier article in this journal to understand the issue. Please do so at the link below

Copyright Manohar Khushalani and OneVorld.org Oct 4, 2021

Bibliography:

• Irrigation Practice and Design, (Volumes I, II,III, IV & V) K.B. Khushalani & Manohar Khushalani Pub; Oxford & IBH (Sponsored by National Book Trust)
• Control of Urban Pollution Series:CUPS/ / 2003-2004, CPCB
• City Development Plan , Department of Urban Development, Govt. of Delhi / IL&FS/October 2006,
• Why is Delhi Water Logged It’s Drains and Sewers Clogged

A Panel Discussion was held on Lok Sabha TV at 1 PM and 4 PM on the 24th of January 2020 to discuss provisions for Water in Ms. Nirmala Sitaraman’s Budget Session in Lok Sabha due on 1st February. The Program was anchored by Parakram Singh Shekhawat. The panelists were Arun Tiwari, Manohar Khushalani and Himanshu Thakkar. They all went into their expectations from the budget with respect to Budget Provisions for Jal Shakti – Water. 

The anchor began the discussion with a small introduction of the Ministry of water resources (Jal Shakti Mantraley), Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the troubled state of water quality and availability through the country, and its ever arising complications. Mr. Arun Tiwari elaborated on our lack of efforts in successfully harvesting rainwater and sustaining groundwater levels, highlighting the lack of regulations surrounding these harvesting methods. The importance of sustainability was highlighted as well unless groundwater is recharged, regulated and the focus needs to be shifted to Sustainability. 

The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Ministry of Water Resources and Ganga Rejuvenation have been merged into the Jal Shakti Ministry under the second term of the Modi government and the Jal Shakti Ministry was allocated Rs 28,261 Crore, an 8% increase. A 10 pointer vision for the next decade was listed out by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. She elaborated that the Jal Shakti Ministry will manage the country’s water resources and water supply in an integrated holistic manner, and will work towards supplying all rural households with water supply by 2024. In the LSTV discussion, Manohar brought forward a set of important points such as the minimal increase in the budget allocated, the unsanitary sewage system, and lack of stormwater drains. He also insisted that along with budget allocation, our national lakes need to be taken care of efficiently and resurrected, and the need for the development of rural handicrafts and the need for a River Basin Authority, for the systematic distribution of water. 

The Atal Bhujal Yojna, is a scheme, also known as ‘Atal Jal’ will promote panchayat-led groundwater management and behavioral change with a primary focus on demand-side management. The scheme is aimed at

• doubling farmers’ incomes,
• promoting participatory groundwater management,
• improving water use efficiency on a mass scale,
• improving cropping pattern and
• promoting efficient and equitable use of groundwater resources and
• behavioral change at the community level.

Official estimates state that over INR 9 crores (90 million) toilets were constructed from 2014 when the Swacch Bharat Mission was launched under the Modi government as one of its flagship schemes. Yet, a government survey in 2017 showed that 6 out of 10 toilets built under the Swacch Bharat Mission did not have water supply, and were hence unusable.

The chemical fertilizer farming is allocated INR 80,000crores, while the green revolution farmers are allotted INR12,000crores but the Organic manure farming is allocated only INR 2 Crore, Manohar Khushalani pointed out, the obvious lack of financial support to organic farmers led to Cancer and other diseases in the cities of Punjab and Harayana, he insisted on the importance of WaterShed Management, an initiative taken by Anna Hazare previously. 

The discussion shed light upon various important aspects of Budget allocation for water conservation and also examined the various areas where more efforts are required for sustainability.

You can watch the informative debate here.

You will find more details on the next debate on LSTV on the topic of Atal Bhujal Yojna, Please find the entire debate here.

According to the 2018 NITI Aayog Report, Delhi is among 21 Indian cities that is poised to run out of groundwater by 2020. It has also been reported that Delhi has been drawing 25 percent more groundwater than the natural recharge rate. Though it is the job of Central Ground Water to stop the exploitation of groundwater, their actions have not been effective. 60 percent of the water supplied by Delhi Jal Board comes from the Yamuna, around 34 percent from Ganga, and the rest is from groundwater. Yamuna river, the major provider of the city’s drinking water, runs heavy with pollutants and is thick with toxic waste and it becomes toxic because of all the sewage that is dumped into the river.

Manohar Khushalani, Rajeev Babar, Kuldeep Kumar and Sanjeev Kaushik were the four panelists invited for this discussion, for an expert opinion, on the dirty water problem faced in Delhi. This video gives an insight into the perspective of the general public and how they’re facing this problem.

TV9 has conducted surveys in 8 parts of Delhi, namely, Laxmi Nagar, Sangam Vihar, Chandni Chowk, Lajpat Nagar, Pitampura, New Delhi, Narela, and Yamuna Vihar. During this survey, they have asked people about their opinions on a few questions about the water and air pollution in Delhi. More details on this is given below.

They had also collected water samples from these areas and gave it for testing. After the results came out, they found out that all the samples that were collected from the 8 parts of Delhi which were surveyed had contaminated and undrinkable water.

Questions asked by TV9 to general public:

Is the water that you receive dirty or unfit for drinking?

This means that on an average, 75 percent of the people said yes, that the water they receive is unfit for drinking, 17.3 percent said no, the water they receive is fine and the rest of 7.7 percent said they’re not sure.

Does the dirty water make your family fall ill?

This means that on average 73.8 percent of the people said that yes, the dirty water makes some of the family members fall sick, 18.4 percent said no, it doesn’t make them fall sick, and the rest 7.8 percent said they’re not sure.

Do you want to leave Delhi because of the water and air pollution?

This means that on an average, 57 percent of the people said yes, they want to leave Delhi, 34.1 percent said no, they’d like to stay there itself and 8.9 percent of the people said they’re not sure.

Do you feel the air in your locality is still polluted and it’s becoming hard to breathe?

This means that on an average, 83.5 percent of the people said yes, they feel the air is polluted and it is becoming hard to breathe, 11.8 percent said no, they do not find it hard to breathe and the rest 4.7 percent said they’re not sure.

BTP Students: Sejal Kumar, Aysha Fazilath, Vyshakh Dharan, Rahul Patwardhan

Lok Sabha TV conducted a panel discussion on the study on Water Management of the Indus River System and its Implications for India’s Foreign Policy. The invited panelists were Prof. Manohar Khushalani, Sushant Sari  and Akshay Singh.

Manohar Khushalani started the discussion by describing the Indus Water Treaty.

The Indus Waters Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan, brokered by the World Bank, to use the water available in the Indus System of rivers. It was signed on 19 September 1960 by Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime Minister of India, and Ayub Khan, the President of Pakistan.

• Eastern Rivers
  • Sutlej
  • Beas
  • Ravi

• Western Rivers
  • Jhelum
  • Chenab
  • Indus

The Treaty gives control over the waters of the three eastern rivers — the Beas, Ravi and Sutlej with a mean annual flow of 33 million acre-feet (MAF) — to India, while control over the waters of the three western rivers — the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum with a mean annual flow of 80 MAF — to Pakistan. According to treaty, all the water of eastern rivers shall be available for unrestricted use in India. India should let unrestricted flow of water from western rivers to Pakistan. This does not mean that India cannot use the western river’s water. They are allowed to use it for limited irrigation and non-consumptive needs such as for generating electricity. This means that the treaty has allocated Pakistan 80 percent of the water from the six-river Indus water system. China has been kept out of the treaty even though Indus originates from Tibet because the topography of the Indus Water System does not allow China to change or stop the flow of the water. Neither of the countries can unilaterally walk out of the pact.

Indus Water Treaty is considered to be one of the most successful water-sharing endeavours in the world today. For 56 years, both India and Pakistan have been peacefully sharing the water of Indus and its tributaries, thanks to The Indus Water Treaty (IWT). But since the ratification, there have been a number of issues raised by both countries over the ethical use of the treaty and the water itself.

India has always treated the security issues and water issues as 2 different subjects.

The discussion also gave insights into the disputes and objections raised over this treaty.

The most frequently raised issue by Pakistan is that India can stop the water flow to Pakistan. Can India stop the water flow to Pakistan? No. Not as per the treaty. India can only utilize the provisions of the treaty to reduce the water flow by a small number but cannot completely stop the flow. India has in fact built many hydro power projects to which Pakistan has objected repeatedly. Even if India decides to reduce the water flow by a large amount, they do not have enough infrastructure to use the additional water and it may even create floods in Kashmir. The decision of not giving water to Pakistan may further enrage the terror elements in the country, making them intensify their attacks on India. This decision can also affect India’s relations with other countries like Nepal and Bangladesh with whom they have water treaties as well. 

Most of the issues have been resolved with legal procedures and mutual understanding from both sides. Though after the 2016 Uri attacks, India threatened to revoke the Indus Water Treaty but so far the threats have not been materialised.

BTP Student: Sejal Kumar, Aysha Fazilath, Vyshakh Dharan, Rahul Patwardhan

NDTV 24×7 conducted a live debate on 18th June 2019 from 8.30 to 9 pm. The Program was titled Reality Check. It was anchored by Vishnu Som. The panelists in the discussion were S Muralidharan, Prof. Manohar Khushalani and TKS Elangovan.

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NDTV has conducted a survey in chennai asking the general public about various problems that they are facing related to water. The residents then told the channel that they have to wait for hours in line to collect some water for every 2 days. Some of them even said that they don’t get enough water to bath. 

According to a london-based risk analytics firm, Chennai is facing “the most extreme risk” of water stress and that this situation could be the new normal for millions of people.  Chennai, he said, gets an average of 54 days of rain per year, yielding an average rainfall of about 140 centimeters (55 inches). Its failure to collect the rain that falls, especially during poor monsoons such as that of last autumn, leads to what he called a “man-made” crisis of scarcity. Less than four years ago, Chennai saw devastating floods that took at least 422 lives in Tamil Nadu and caused up to $14 billion in damages. But most of that rainwater flowed into the sea, lost forever to Chennai’s parched groundwater reserves. As the coastal city anticipates its upcoming autumn monsoon season, residents and experts have criticized authorities for failing to rehabilitate a notoriously mismanaged water supply.

Unless we capture the rain that falls in those monsoon days, we will run out of water

Manohar Khushalani stated that the big factors that have led to this crisis in Tamil Nadu are deforestation and mining, in other words construction of buildings for development is in the process.. These types of constructions have halted the recharge of lakes and reservoirs that  supply water to the households, and since the recharge has stopped, the major lakes and reservoirs have gone completely dry. Even the amount of rainfall has been declining and that amount was not enough to recharge the lakes.

Water tankers are being called into most of the areas of Tamil Nadu which are facing drought. However, government tankers can take up to a month to appear after requested, so some families, wealthy residents, and business owners have opted to pay for costly private water tankers. The poor who live in slums do not have this option; a family in Chennai’s slums may receive as little as 30 litres (7.9 US gallons) of water every day compared to an average American household which uses 1,150 litres (300 US gallons) of water a day.

S Muralidharan mentioned the fact that Tamil Nadu contains 6 percent of India’s population and it covers 4 percent of India’s land area but still the state only receives 2-2.5 percent of the water provided. This tells that Tamil Nadu has already become a dry state and is facing water crisis currently.

What steps have been taken to improve the situation?

The Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewage Board, which is responsible for the city’s water supply, has pushed for lakes to be desilted, allowing them to be used for water storage. The state government said in response it has begun to set up 270 water purification centers and has recently begun construction on Chennai’s third desalination plant, after which the government said the city will no longer have to rely on monsoon rains.

Under former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa, who served in the role for over 14 years, Chennai made rainwater harvesting compulsory, requiring every building to install a water catchment system on its rooftop and pour the collected rainwater into the ground. However, when a survey was conducted regarding this, only 40 percent of the buildings were found to be complying with this law. The following three years brought heavy rains and, he said, dramatically raised the groundwater level, filling dry open wells for the first time in decades. Though the 40 percent compliance rate was a good start, it wasn’t good enough for the state to come out of the water crisis.

The city already has two desalination plants with capacity of 210 million litres a day that service the northern suburbs. A third 150 million litre plant costing nearly Rs 1300 crore would be ready next year. 2 new recycling plants are also being built which will have a capacity of 120 million litres a day. This will free up domestic drinking water supplies and reduce the reliance on the already stressed ground water resources.

Watch More Programs on this Subject by clicking on the playlist below:

Manohar Khushalani was one of the panelists who appeared live on NDTV for a panel discussion on the water crisis faced in India. This video gives an insight into the problems faced by Indians when it comes to water as well as some expert opinions on this matter. Some of the other panelists are Raghav Chadha, VK Madhavan, Medha Patkar, Dr. Vaman Acharya, and Arunabha Ghosh.

India is facing a major water crisis. People are facing drought-like situations and running out of tap water in major cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and even in the capital, Delhi.

Raghav Chadha started the discussion by giving facts such as, the water availability has increased in Delhi in the last 4 years from 50 percent of the population receiving usable water to 80 percent. He also said the government is planning to rejuvenate lakes and also create new lakes as resources for freshwater. He also mentioned that the condition of south delhi districts, which earlier faced the problem of clean water and also improper sewage treatment, has now been fixed and will be provided with usable fresh water in the upcoming months.

Prof. Manohar Khushalani mentioned the fact that India as a country consumes more groundwater than any other country. He also stated that water should now be treated as a subject for the central government instead of being treated as a state subject. The states do not have enough coordination and are busy in handling the inter-state water disputes while the residents are still suffering. He also mentioned the fact that there needs to be more research put into methods for getting water from rivers and other sources.

VK Madhavan then gave some key perspectives such as, that the water crisis is caused not only due to excessive use of water but also improper distribution and conservation of water. He argued that the source of tankers that provide water to communities is uncertain, and there are still major areas that don’t have assured access. At a later stage of the discussion he also mentioned that cities are largely dependent on groundwater but do nothing when it comes to implementation methods like drip irrigation to conserve water. India receives a huge amount of rainfall which doesn’t necessarily seep into the ground and thus should be stored and filtered in an efficient manner.

Medha Patkar emphasised on the fact that the current structures and working of dams and related buildings are destroying the rivers. She also highlighted that the government should be focusing more on mini and micro water shedding instead of macro water shedding. She also said that the government’s main strategy should revolve around controlling the access to water on a per house basis and that for major changes the community itself should play a big role.

While water scarcity in India as an issue has not been discussed as topmost important matter, it is high time the people should focus on this subject, or else it’ll be too late to realise and it will affect India and its people way more than it is doing today.

Chennai, the fourth largest city in India, is the worst hit city when it comes to water crisis. Chennai city officials declared that the day when almost no water is left, had been reached, as all the four main reservoirs supplying water to the city had run dry. Two years of deficient monsoon rainfall, with a rainfall deficit of 55 percent, particularly in late 2017 and throughout much of 2018 had led to this crisis. This has impacted millions of people who are left with inconsistent access to water. This is said to be the case of current developed states like Karnataka and Maharashtra in the future. Karnataka has very small amounts of resources left and soon will be piling their hopes on Maharashtra to receive water. On the other hand, Maharashtra because of its size and location, is under immense pressure to provide not only to its residents but also neighbouring states. The rainfall in these 2 states has also started declining in the past few years which only has caused more problems.

Some of the other valuable points that are mentioned by the panellists are; controlling the use of water in the agriculture industry. Sugarcane, which is a crop that depends on water heavily, is grown in parts of the country that have a scarcity of supply. This reduces the availability of water for the people for their personal use; recycling and recharging should be the topmost priority of any water management organisation, i.e. filtering out the water received by rain and distributing that water to the households that don’t have access to groundwater; the yearly monsoon pattern shows that the rain is declining in most parts of India and this also should be a major concern; even though the government is planning on making new residential buildings for development, they are not checked about proper water consumption levels and are sometimes specified with uncertain sources of water so as to receive license to build those structures.

Professor Manohar Khushalani was invited on a panel discussion on ABP News with the anchor Romana Israr Khan on the segment ‘Samvidhan Ki Shapat’, on Monday, the 18th of November at 5 PM. 

The panel began with an introduction about the political twist in the heated pre-election environment on the report on the quality of water in Delhi released by Ram Vilas Paswan, the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public distribution. The claims of terrible water quality were refuted and questioned by Arvind Kejriwal, of the Aam Aadmi Party. 

(Professor Manohar Khushalani with Mr. Harish Khurana, Mr. Haroon Yusuf, Mr. Raghav Chaddha and the anchor Romana Israr Khan)

Along with Professor Manohar Khushalani, the ex-director of National Water Academy, Mr. Harish Khurana, the spokesperson for BJP, Mr. Raghav Chaddha, the spokesperson for AAP and Mr. Haroon Yusuf, the spokesperson for INC were present in the panel debate.

The debate opened with Mr. Chaddha claiming that Mr. Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Minister of Jal Shakti had previously reported in September that the quality of Delhi’s water fared even better than the water quality in Europe and that Mr. Manoj Tiwari had agreed to the claims. AAP refuted the claims saying the samples were selectively chosen and misconstrued to present a defeating image, citing political reasons.  It is important to remember that the World Health Organization states that 80% of India’s groundwater is contaminated by various organic and inorganic pollutants and that India is ranked 20th out of 122 countries in WaterAid’s water quality index.  Mr. Khurana refuted the previous report by Minister of Jal saying his statements are being distorted to suit a narrative and the state of India’s water quality is grim and unfortunate. This discussion revolving Delhi’s water quality is of immense importance as approximately 2439 people have lost their lives in 2018 alone to various water-borne diseases such as Chlorella, Typhoid, Hepatitis amongst others. Mr. Manohar elaborated on the technicalities behind report finding and lauded the authenticity of the Bureau of Indian Standards but went on to state how 11 reports alone weren’t enough to gauge the quality of water, especially citing the lack of information surrounding the report.  A very significant point was bought to notice by Mr. Manohar who reminded us of the importance Air and Water quality holds to the residents of every area, how previously our surface water was clean and the storm-water drains created during the British era were perfectly functional. But with the advent of covered up drains and Unauthorized colonies, Chemical farming, usage of fertilizers has led to a decrease in the quality of water and improper sewage system has caused our water to pollute. 

The extremely heated and informative discussion ended with anchor divulging into the importance of Air and Water quality to the standard of living of the citizens of the country, and how it is important that the politicians look beyond the politics and genuinely improve the quality for the people. You can watch the entire discussion and find more information here- Panel Discussion on water

Channel One’s half-hour program where Prof. Manohar Khushalani elaborated on how to tackle the water crisis in Delhi in a holistic fashion. Recorded in Channel One Studio in Noida, UP in May 2013

With the rising temperatures in Delhi, the need and demand for water are also rising. The water supply in the capital is becoming worse day by day. Even after multiple promises made by the government, the pressing issue still remains and is in fact growing.

There are many ways in which the situation can be tackled but planning is required. The demand and supply have to be met. The amount of groundwater used is currently more than what is being percolated back. Most of Delhi is located on a hill and groundwater has a little to no existence there. Even the villages where water used to be abundant have very less water now.

Delhi Jal Board has introduced a GPS tracking system for the tankers to prevent stealing and black marketing. The government is also working on directing the water in the right canals which will increase the percentage of water that can be used. The system has been made but even after multiple complaints and requests, there’s no action being taken regularly.

Prof. Manohar Khushalani adds some solutions to the problems. He states that the water level was high years back even when Delhi was a hilly area. So there might have been some mismanagement behind the issue at hand today.

Sewage treatment is also very necessary because otherwise rivers get polluted by the sewage. Sewage farms have been replaced by construction of buildings. Dilution of water has become impossible after people started covering the gutters. These stormwater drains have been made by using public tax money and no one has the right to block them. A formal penalty will be the best solution to this problem.

The calls received in the panel discussion shows how people are frustrated with the situation. They usually get dirty water, which happens because the mainline gets mixed with the sewage line. One caller suggests that an RO system or any water-purifier system can be used in a locality. Jal Board needs to make sure that the voices of people are heard so that better decisions can be made in regards to providing clean water.

For more details visit the following link : https://youtu.be/ppQ-9nAdu70

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BTP Students: Sejal Kumar / Aysha Fazilath / Rahul Patwardhan / Vyshakh Dharan

This OneVorld video explains the Yamuna Action Plan which was introduced in 1993 as one of the largest restoration projects in India. It is a bilateral project between India and Japan. It was launched in 1993. The 1st phase was carried out by National River Conservation Directorate. It focused on building new and expanding the capacity of old sewage treatment plants.

In 1993 when the Yamuna was declared as the dirtiest river in the country, YAMUNA ACTION PLAN came into existence.

There was a threat to aquatic life as well as water shortage problems due to years of sewage dumping. It was decided to divide and complete it in three phases. The project spans from Hatnikund (Haryana) till the point where Yamuna meets the River Ganga along with Sindh River and Chambal River.

According to initial surveys, it was found that 22kms of Yamuna’s stretch which is through Delhi was the major contributor to pollution.

First phase covered Delhi, eight towns in Uttar Pradesh and six towns in Haryana. Second phase emphasised on the 22 kms stretch in Delhi. Third phase of the plan was initiated in 2013 despite the debates around the success of the first two phases.

But somehow, despite all this planning, studies warned that Delhi’s waterway was toxic even after treatment and should not be used for drinking or irrigation. The condition is still not improved even after years of planning and investment. It’s not just sewage dumping but many of our practices that have led to these disastrous scenarios. People can now literally see foam from Google Earth. It is high time to rethink our actions and its effects.

IIITD Student B.Tech Project. BTP Supervisor: Prof. Manohar Khushalani
BTP Students: Sejal Kumar / Aysha Fazilath / Rahul Patwardhan / Vyshakh Dharan
Video Input: Utsav Rohilla / Nitin Yadav / Aditya Diundi

K2-18b is now the only planet orbiting a star outside the Solar System known to have both water and temperatures that could be potentially habitable

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