Apex court slams DJB for dirty Yamuna, ropes in experts
   
  New Delhi, December 19 (IANS): The Supreme Court Tuesday roped in experts from the Indian Institutes of Technology at Delhi and Roorkee to draw up plans for cleaning the polluted Yamuna river and slammed the Delhi Jal Board for its “pathetic” work.
  Addressing the directors of the two institutes, an apex court bench of Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice Madan B. Lokur said that “cleaning the Yamuna is not possible unless discharge of effluents is stopped” and asked them to “tell how to clean the Yamuna”. “We are not here to blame anybody. (The) only sad thing is that it (matter concerning the cleaning of the Yamuna) is pending since 1994 and things have gone worse by the day,” the apex court said. Justice Lokur said the Yamuna could not be cleaned unless there was a “greater flow of water”. Perusing an affidavit filed by the Delhi Jal Board, the court said: “What the DJB has done in the past is pathetic…”
  The court set up a committee headed by the environment and forests secretary to suggest plans for “controlling and preventing” pollution and cleaning the river.The court earlier observed that the Yamuna in Delhi was a drain and even after spending Rs.12,000 crore on its cleaning, its condition had become worse. The committee includes directors of Delhi and Roorkee IITs, Haryana chief secretary, officials of Delhi civic agencies and Noida authority, and representative of the Delhi Lt. governor. The committee will meet Jan 12, 2013. The court would next hear the case February  8, 2013

Satayme Jayate episode on water pollution ....."a must watch!!"

http://youtu.be/hq_pVKZUPVk

CARRY ME RIVER

carry me (a river) carry me (a river) carry me a river take i there,
 by the river let the cool breeze wash away the pain from within me not in vain
 carry me a river where the sweet melodies of the birds reign
 the birds in a singing mood so plain wipe off my mind from the railing train and
carry me over yonder to clear my brain as you carry me a river
 carry me a river by the river side
 the pebbles and the bubbles clear as water by the stream
 as you carry me
 a river told me the best poor surrogate of wisdom is pride
 but intelligence and self trust will avoid troubles not even in your dream
 carry me a river in touch with i roots in my gideon boots and some khaki suites
 carry me a river to dream a better me
 and look back to see the horizon by sundown lost
but not a clown with my thinking crown i stood up to go back-a town
 next time carry me a river on time though you carry me there for some time
but next time carry me a river on time

By June this year, the extended period of Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) II, a whopping Rs. 1,000 crore would have been spent under phase I and II of the YAP since its beginning in 1994. Another Rs. 1,600 crore is earmarked for YAP III as part of grants received from the Ministry of Environment and Forest and Rs. 1,400 crore is to be pumped through JNNURM. But all this has failed to make Yamuna pollution-free in the national Capital. "From bad to worst" is how Manoj Mishra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan describes the condition over the years of the action plan. With nothing much achieved by earlier plans, Mishra said he has "no hopes at all" from YAP III. "In absence of any overarching agency to monitor and control multiple agencies in the city, how can a project that states 'if this and this does so, then this and this will happen' work?" he asked and added, "The key issue of more water release upstream of Delhi has always been skirted." Ramesh Negi, CEO of Delhi Jal Board, claimed the exact opposite. "From 45% to 65%, the sewerage coverage has actually gone up during the last decade. And now we are working on interceptor sewer," he said. YAP I saw community toilets by the MCD, II saw capacity addition for sewage treatment and in III the DJB expects to take sewage treatment capacity to 700 MGD. Plus, a Sewerage Master Plan 2031 is taking shape. "In 5-6 years, the biological oxygen demand level will come down to 12 as against the current 30-40," he said.

Imagine a 24-feet installation cleaning the filthy waters of the Yamuna. A Delhi-based artist, Gigi Scaria has created a Leaning Tower of Pisa-like structure by the river to purify its waters and serve as a fountain. Made out of aluminum and supported by a 10-feet iron rod, the installation, titled The Fountain of Purification, is part of the Yamuna-Elbe: Public.Art.Outreach project at the Golden Jubilee Park near the Old Yamuna Bridge. Launched on Wednesday, the project, centred on the idea of creating ecologically sustainable rivers, displays functional artworks by Indian and German artists. Scaria’s artwork has four floors. There’s a big tank embedded at the water front that collects the water from the river. “The tank has three layers of filtration. That’s the main purification part,” he explains. Once the water gets cleansed through the tank, it revolves inside the installation and splashes up at height of 50 feet. “The splashing is also symbolic of what Hindus do during pujas for purification of the soul,” says Scaria, who built the structure in a month. The project has been co-curated by Ravi Agarwal, an Indian artist-environmentalist from Delhi, and Till Krause, a well-known land artist from Hamburg. While Scaria’s installation addresses the Yamuna, Krause takes up the cause for the Elbe river in Hamburg.

Tips on cleaning the river

Some useful tips to help clean the river Bar people from disposing of religious ornamentations like flower garlands in the river. Chemically painted statues must no more be immersed in this river and so is the case with industrial affluent and chemical wastes. Prevent washer men from using river ghats. Prevent people from defecating in the open along the river banks. Creation of Havan Kund for disposal of the religious material, by employing vehicles for collecting material from each temple. Special Pooja Material collection vehicles may be deployed as per a systematic plan. as per Hindu religious faith. Put up nets in the river to catch the waste if any.

students make posters to spread awareness

Posters made by students in their effort to spread awareness on the state of the yamuna river

yamuna and its state -a video

Total length of the River Yamuna from its origin near Yamunotri to its confluence with Ganga River at Allahabad is 1376 kilometer. The total basin area of the river is 366223 km 2 which covers part of geographical area in the states of Uttaranchal, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh & NCT – Delhi. ¾ The flow of the Yamuna River varies significantly during monsoon and nonmonsoon seasons. The river constitutes maximum flow i.e. around 80% of the total annual flow during monsoon period. During non-monsoon period the Yamuna cannot be designated as a continuous river but segregated into four independent segments due to the presence of three barrages from where almost the entire water is being diverted for various human activities.

why is the yamuna polluted

The River Yamuna, the largest tributary  of River Ganga has been one of the most
prominent & important rivers of India. Unfortunately, certain stretches of River Yamuna
are very polluted. Various urban centers e.g. Delhi, Mathura, Agra etc., which are
located on the banks of Yamuna river, draw fresh river water for various activities. In
return, almost the entire wastewater generated by these centers is disposed off into the
river. This is the prime reason for deterioration of Yamuna River water quality from
urban agglomeration of Delhi up to Chambal River Confluence.

River Yamuna (यमुना), with a total length of around 1,370 kilometers (851 mi), is the largest tributary of the Ganges River Ganga गगां in northern India. Yamuna is considered the most sacred among all the rivers as per Hindu mythology. Its source is at Yamunotri, in the Uttarakhand Himalaya, in the Himalayan Mountains.It flows through the states of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, before merging with the Ganges at Allahabad. The cities of Delhi, Mathura and Agra lie on its banks. Originating in the Yamunotri glacier in the Himalayas, Yamuna covers a distance of over 1,300 km, before merging with the Ganga in Allahabad.
  Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, especially around Delhi, which dumps about 57% of its waste into the river. Delhi alone contributes around 3,296 million litres per day of sewage in the river. Even the the Supreme Court Justice B.S. hauhan, sitting in a bench, headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan could not refrain from observing that "it is no more a maili Yamuna but a ganda nullah."
 Yamunotri is the source of the revered river Yamuna. It constitutes one of the four most important pilgrimages, collectively called 'Char Dham' of the Garhwal Himalayas or Uttarakhand. 

Voicing concern for Yamuna . 
     
 Around 2,000 youngsters from all over the country got together for an international social media campaign to mark the "International Day of Action", that was observed recently.
 The Indian campaign dealt with the issue of cleanliness of river Yamuna. About 200 youngsters from India signed an online petition asking the Ministry of Water Resources to take significant and effective steps to clean, rehabilitate and preserve Yamuna--a lifeline to 57 million people of the country.
  The issue is vital because millions of people depend on the river Yamuna directly or indirectly but despite so many programmes, the river is still as polluted as it was 15 years ago.?

AGRA: Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra today cleaned the Yamuna river here in a symbolic gesture as part of an initiative to create awareness forenvironmental issues. 

Wearing oversized sunglasses and a white kurti, the 29-year-old star picked up a mason's fork and cleaned the floating rubbish from the bank of the Yamuna at the Dussehra ghat, with the iconic Taj Mahal in the backdrop. 

The event kickstarted the fourth NDTV Greenathon campaign, of which Priyanka is the brand ambassador. 

"This time we began our campaign from Agra because tourist inflow is maximum here. Taj Mahal is on the bank of river Yamuna, which has become a dumping zone of waste materials now. If we do not protect our environment our future will be dark," Priyanka said. 

Model-actor Milind Soman and Abhishek Mishra, Minister of State for Protocol, UP, alongwith local environmental organizations and school children joined her in the effort. The whole exercise took about an hour. 

What have we done to the life line of the city over the years...!!!

Emperor Akbar liked to spend time watching the river Yamuna from the palace terrace at nights before retiring to bed. Some times Birbal would also join him on the terrace and they would have conversations about a variety of topics. 
One summer night, while they sat in silence, listening to the river flow, Akbar asked, “Why does Yamuna cry, Birbal?”
Without a moment’s hesitation Birbal said, “It is in the nature of young women to cry when they are married off.”
“Explain”, said the Emperor curiously.
“Young river Yamuna has been staying with her father the Himalayas. Now she is on her way to meet her husband the mighty ocean. So along the way from her father’s home where she grew up to her husband home where she will spend the rest of her life, she is crying!”
Akbar was pleased with Birbal prompt but poetic answer.

                          The course of the river Yamuna

The River Yamuna

Originating from the Yamunotri glacier in the lower Himalayas, the Yamuna is one of the largest tributaries of the Ganges river network. The river travels a total of 1376 kilometers crossing several northern states in India including Uttrakhand, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and later Delhi, the capital of the country. In Hindu mythology, the Yamuna is considered the daughter of Sun God, Surya, and sister of Yama, the God of Death, hence also known as Yami. According to popular legends, bathing in its sacred waters frees one from the torments of death.

The Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) is a bilateral project between the Government of India and Japan. It is one of the largest river restoration projects in India. The government of Japan, via the Japanese Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), has provided financial aid of 17.7 billion yen to carry out the project, which is being executed by the National River Conservation Directorate, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and the Government of India.

 India is getting assistance from Japan for a programme to cleanse the Yamuna river, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said Monday"

Japan international Co-operation Agency (JICA) has agreed to provide a loan of 32,571 million yen to the Government of India for the 3rd phase of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP)," Natarajan said.. 

"The government is implementing the Yamuna Action Plan in a phased manned with assistance from the government of Japan. A total of 286 schemes for cleaning the river have already been implemented in 21 towns of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi. sewage cleaning capacity of 767.25 million litres per day has been created," she added. (IANS)