In Pictures

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In Pictures: India’s toxic Yamuna river

Untreated sewage and industrial waste going into Yamuna, which flows through Delhi, has turned it into glorified drain.

Fishermen catch fish in the black poisonous waters of the Yamuna river at Okhla Barrage in south Delhi.
By Surender Solanki
Published On 6 Jul 2014

The Yamuna river, which originates 375km north of New Delhi, at the Yamunotri glacier in Uttarakhand, is relatively unpolluted until it enters the national capital.

According to a 2009 report by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, 80 percent of all the pollution in the river is dumped into it along only two percent of its total length – the 22km segment between the Wazirabad Barrage in the north of Delhi and the Okhla Barrage in the south.

Untreated sewage and industrial waste dumping into the river has turned it into a glorified drain, with various studies showing that the river water is not even fit for bathing.

In May this year, the government of Delhi shut down 112 illegal industrial drains, yet other illegal dumping still occurs from industries and neighbourhoods alike.

At Sarai Kale Khan, an urban village in south Delhi, people queue patiently for potable water barely 300 metres away from the river, yet they are forced to rely on a hand-pump for water.

The federal government initiated the first phase of the Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) in 1993, to clean up the river. When the project did not meet its targets, a second phase was launched in 2004.

Phase III of the YAP was launched in December last year, but despite such efforts and hundreds of millions of dollars, massive amounts of waste continue to be dumped into the Yamuna every day, making it one of the dirtiest rivers in the South Asian country.

Irrigation department officials inspect areas near the Okhla Dam on the river.
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The river water has turned black due to pollution.
A child jumps over piles of garbage in the river at Kalindi Kunj in New Delhi.
A man crosses the Yamuna through its polluted stretch at Wazirabad.
A man performs Hindu rituals for his dead father under the guidance of a priest, on the Banks of the Yamuna at Soniya Vihar Ghat.
A washerman works on the banks of the river in Sarai Kale Khan village.
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Shabana Begum making paan (betel leaf paired with areca nut and lime) for her husband in her hut at the bank of the river at Sonia Vihar in New Delhi.
People watch as a bullock(***)s hooves being fixed near the old Railway Bridge at Shastri Park.
A Sadhu (saint) washing cloth and prepairing for holy bath in the most polluted stretch of the Yamuna at Kalindi Kunj Ghaat.
Fishermen try to catch fish in the highly polluted waters of the river at the Okhla Barrage.
A bridge under construction on the river at Majnu ka Tilla in north Delhi.
Working under way for the construction of a "signature bridge" on the river.
A handpump on the banks of river Yamuna at Soniya Vihar is used to draw ground water.
Devotees immerse the idol of Goddess Durga in the Yamuna near Kalindi Kunj.