Ineffective STPs Pose Big Yamuna Clean-Up Hurdle

Experts Want Accountability Over Treatment Plants

- Paras Singh

NEW DELHI: Nineteen of Delhi's 37 sewage treatment plants (STPs) are not meeting the treatment standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), posing a key challenge to the Yamuna clean-up due to the release of effluents with alarming levels of faecal coliform, experts and stakeholders said, citing the latest data shared by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

The faecal coliform level in some cases is 10 times more than the prescribed limits at the Ghitorni STP, while several units of the Okhla plant were closed, according to a DPCC report dated January 30.

Activists recently flagged that sludge was observed in Yamuna near the Kalindi Kunj barrage.

To be sure, as many as 22 drains empty into the Yamuna, with Najafgarh being the largest of all and solely accounting for around 65% of the discharge.