The Delhi government is set to install floating waste segregators upstream of Palla – where Yamuna enters Delhi – to tackle the floating waste, hyacinth, and garbage entering the river. Similar floating structures have previously been installed on larger drains in Delhi.
Similar floating structures have previously been installed on larger drains in Delhi. (Arvind YadavHindustan Times)
An official from the Irrigation and Flood Control (I&FC) Department said the government is in the process of hiring a private firm, which will be responsible for installing the structure, removal and disposal of floating materials, hyacinth and its dumping at designated place in coordination with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
“The company will undertake these cleaning operations for one year. This will help us prevent floating waste coming to Delhi towards Wazirabad. Around ₹44 lakh will be spent on the project while a similar floating barrier is expected to come up on Shahdara drain at ₹15.9 lakh and a third barrier on Trunk drain 1 outfall in east Delhi,” the official said.
Boom barriers are floating devices being increasingly used on rivers internationally to trap and remove waste from entering larger water bodies such as lakes or seas. The Shahdara, Najafgarh and Supplementary drains that outfall into the Yamuna are considered major polluters.
Bhim Singh Rawat, a Yamuna activist, and member of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) said there is a problem of water hyacinth coming from drain number 8 which is perennial. “During the monsoon season, the quantum of waste increases but there are drains like drain number 2 from Panipat, Dhanoa escape in Karnal and Sonipat. They need to focus on drains where waste is dumped. More importantly, the dissolved industrial pollutants are more problematic. The drain number 8 carries a lot of industrial waste to Yamuna.”
Rawat added that larger quantities of floating waste can clog screens in water treatment plant. “Delhi stretch also sees trash barriers during the festive period. The problem is that collected trash is dumped on the banks. We should also hold an audit of what has been achieved from these barriers over the last 2-3 years. A second issue is deployment of unskilled labour in manual cleaning of these barriers,” he added.