And now Yamuna gets its Gangajal

VIJAY UPADHYAY

Agra, 20 Nov. After almost a fortnight of painstakingly extracting potable water from deadly chemicals flowing in the Yamuna, the Agra water works officials have a reason to rejoice. Fifty cusecs of Ganga water were released into the Yamuna on Friday to dilute the industrial sewage flowing in the river.

Mr AK Dubey, General Manager, Agra Water Works alleged that for the past 15 days, his organisation had been processing the Yamuna water flowing through Agra, serving deadly chemicals and urban waste to the 20 million strong population of the city. With the sub-soil water in Agra heavily laced with fluoride, the lives of the locals fully depend upon the water supplied by the water works through a comprehensive water supply system.

This water had become extremely polluted after the industrial sewage from Delhi and Haryana began to be dumped untapped into the Yamuna, which resulted in an increase in the chlorine demand at Agra upto 110 ppm, raising the brows of health experts.Mr Dubey said that a joint team of Agra Water Works and UP Pollution Control Board (UPPCB) visited Delhi to locate the source of the pollution, where it was learnt that the water being served to Agra was atleast 100 times more polluted than the water consumed by Delhites. The team also came to the conclusion that Agra was receiving urban sewage and industrial waste of Delhi in the name of Yamuna water.

He said that despite heavy chlorination, the pollution continued to increase by the day and by Thursday last week, the situation had worsened to such an extent that further chlorination was not possible without completely destroying the water quality. An urgent meeting was sought with the UP Government to find a way out of the situation. According to Mr Dubey, they had requested the immediate release of atleast 150 cusecs of Ganga water into the Yamuna, but only 50 cusecs were released, which is not sufficient to completely dilute the Yamuna pollution.

Reacting on the release of Ganga water in the Yamuna, UPPCB Regional Manager AK Tiwari said that though the water quality in Agra is bound to improve after mixing Ganga water in it, there is no provision in Agra to hold the water in the absence of the long-awaited Agra barrage. This means that a large volume of the Ganga water will flow unutilised past Agra, into the Chambal river.

Said a lawyer, Mr Inderjit Singh Puri, "The Central Government and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) are ignoring the fact that the lives of 20 million residents of Agra are being threatened." He warned that the people might be forced to move the Supreme Court.
(UNITED NEWS NETWORK)






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