'Najafgarh drain is polluting Yamuna with 2x the sewage'

A new survey of the Yamuna has revealed an alarming truth: the Najafgarh drain, long known to be the river's biggest polluter, is pumping nearly twice the estimated volume of untreated sewage into the Yamuna.

- Paras Singh

And a significant chunk of this pollution isn’t even Delhi's doing — it originates in Gurugram.

The revelation is part of an ongoing analysis by the Delhi government to assess untreated sewage flow into the Yamuna from the city’s 22 major drains. According to Delhi water minister Parvesh Verma, fresh findings indicate that the Najafgarh drain alone now carries around 800 million gallons per day (MGD) of sewage into the river—up from previous estimates of 450 MGD.

Even more striking is that nearly 250 MGD of that waste is believed to come from Gurugram, through drains such as Badshahpur, before entering Delhi's already overburdened drainage network.

“This (the actual volume of sewage) is a serious discovery,” Verma told HT. “We are mapping every drain and their catchment areas to understand where the sewage is coming from and how much of it is treated or untreated. The final report will be ready by September or October...”

The most polluted 22km stretch of the Yamuna in Delhi, between Wazirabad and Okhla, receives effluents from dozens of drains, with Najafgarh and Shahdara being the most significant. Experts said the scale of the problem demands a complete reevaluation of sewage treatment capacities and pollution control efforts across both Delhi and Haryana.