High Ammonia in Yamuna, Surveillance Squad Constituted
Taps in Delhi run dry a few times every year due to sudden high Ammonia levels upstream in River Yamuna. The High Ammonia prevents the Water Treatment Plants to work and as a result they have to be shut down and lakhs of Delhiites have to remain without water, sometimes for days.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) recently convened a meeting on this matter with the officials of Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC), Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Irrigation & Water Resources Department of Haryana and Irrigation and Flood Control Department of Delhi. The objective of the meeting was to discuss this recurring issue of increase in Ammonia in River Yamuna and find short and long-term solutions.
The discussion brought out certain possible reasons for this sudden emergence of high Ammonia as discharge of untreated sewage from upstream towns and/or industrial units in Haryana, illegal discharge of sewage from unsewered colonies in outer Delhi, lean flow in the River Yamuna and anaerobic decomposition of accumulated sludge on river bed.
A Joint Surveillance Squad comprising DJB, DPCC, Irrigation and Flood Control Department of Delhi and HSPCB and Irrigation and Water Resources Department, Haryana has been constituted. A study group comprising Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Haryana State Pollution Control Board, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, Irrigation and Water Resources Department of Haryana, Irrigation and Flood Control Department of Delhi has now been constituted.
The group will review uniform monitoring protocol and requirement of strengthening monitoring mechanism, analyse past data and carry out field survey to identify critical hotspots as well as period of high Ammonia levels. Another objective of this group will be to suggest short and long-term measures for sustained solutions. The Group will submit its report in a months time.
