How to Keep Yamuna Clean
About Yamuna. But not just Yamuna
• Every river, every lake, every water body getting polluted. Full of our sewage.
• We take water, return sewage.
• 80% of water leaves as sewage
• Cities are growing, need more water, discharge more pollution.
• Dirty water means ill health: biggest cause of children’s death.
Be angry. Not acceptable.
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22 Km stretch in Delhi Contributes 70 per cent of the total pollution load of the river
Funds spent, programmes implemented
• By 2006
17 sewage treatment plants built;
10 common effluent plants built;
30 km of trunk sewers repairs (out of 130 km)
Slums removed from riverfront
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Low-cost toilets built
Money Spent
-Not about pollution. It is about sewage
• We discuss pollution because it is modern and somehow touchable.
• We do not discuss human excreta and its disposal.
That is an untouchable subject.
• Flush and forget mindset.
• Drains will carry it. Somebody will treat it. Somebody will build sewage treatment plant. Clean it. Dispose it.
• Don’t care. Yamuna is polluted not because of us
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But it is about us: our water; our sewage
Current system: bring water (from distance); treat, pump, pipe to home, take sewage, pump, pipe, treat and dispose…river will be clean
• Should work. But:
a. It is capital intensive – creates divide between the rich and poor in a city. The state can subsidise some but not all. Subsidises rich
b. It is resource intensive – uses water, creates waste. Adds to stress.
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-Arithmetic of excreta
• The more water we use = the more waste we generate
• The more waste we generate = more money to collect, to convey, to treat and to dispose
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• The more waste we do not treat = polluted water and increased burden of health
• Every river, every lake, every water body getting polluted. Full of our sewage.
• We take water, return sewage.
• 80% of water leaves as sewage
• Cities are growing, need more water, discharge more pollution.
• Dirty water means ill health: biggest cause of children’s death.
Be angry. Not acceptable.
-------------------------------------------------
22 Km stretch in Delhi Contributes 70 per cent of the total pollution load of the river
Funds spent, programmes implemented
• By 2006
17 sewage treatment plants built;
10 common effluent plants built;
30 km of trunk sewers repairs (out of 130 km)
Slums removed from riverfront
-------------------------------------------------
Low-cost toilets built
Money Spent
-Not about pollution. It is about sewage
• We discuss pollution because it is modern and somehow touchable.
• We do not discuss human excreta and its disposal.
That is an untouchable subject.
• Flush and forget mindset.
• Drains will carry it. Somebody will treat it. Somebody will build sewage treatment plant. Clean it. Dispose it.
• Don’t care. Yamuna is polluted not because of us
-------------------------------------------------
But it is about us: our water; our sewage
Current system: bring water (from distance); treat, pump, pipe to home, take sewage, pump, pipe, treat and dispose…river will be clean
• Should work. But:
a. It is capital intensive – creates divide between the rich and poor in a city. The state can subsidise some but not all. Subsidises rich
b. It is resource intensive – uses water, creates waste. Adds to stress.
-------------------------------------------------
-Arithmetic of excreta
• The more water we use = the more waste we generate
• The more waste we generate = more money to collect, to convey, to treat and to dispose
-------------------------------------------------
• The more waste we do not treat = polluted water and increased burden of health