How this advocacy group is fighting to bring Yamuna back to life

The Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan is strenuously advocating cleanup and restoration of the river

In the olden days, it was believed that bathing in this river or drinking its waters removed all sin. Today, by the time the Yamuna flows out of Delhi, there’s more sewage and less freshwater flowing through it. Many wonder what fate awaits the Yamuna, but the folks at the Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan (YJA), an advocacy group and watchdog of the river’s health, are optimistic.

“The Yamuna is a classic example of a river gone sick due to an all-round apathy shown by the government as well as citizens,” says Manoj Misra, head of YJA. “But all isn’t quite lost for the capital’s lifeline,” he adds.

The campaign to save the Yamuna began in early 2007 when several individuals and Delhi-based NGOs — Toxics Link, Peace Institute Charitable Trust and Paani Morcha, to name a few — became collectively concerned about the state of the river in Delhi.

“We wanted to generate awareness, engage in advocacy and develop replicable models for rejuvenating the river,” says Misra. The campaign received a major fillip from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in 2015.

Responding to an application filed by Misra, the NGT directed the immediate ban on encroachment and dumping of solid waste in the riverbed; removal within a fixed time frame of all debris and other solid waste dumped in the riverbed; and restoration of the natural water body to its former self. “These directives will go a long way in rejuvenating the Yamuna, and we’re working to ensure that they are properly implemented by the government,” says Misra.

The NGT directive included important steps to revive the Yamuna’s natural flow. This is impeded by the construction of “pseudo bridges” (elevated roads with pillars that have been dug into the active floodplain instead of straddling its width) like the Delhi Noida Direct Flyway; blocking of stormwater drains across the city and the restricted flow of river from the Hathnikund Barrage, about 200 km upstream of Delhi. Misra and his cohorts have petitioned against the untreated domestic sewage flowing through stormwater drains, as well as the degradation of drains like Najafgarh that once used to be active tributaries of the Yamuna.

“Proper wastewater management is another crucial key to the revival of the Yamuna,” says Misra. “The YJA has been strenuously advocating that the city’s sewage must be cleaned, recycled and used within the city — it must never be put into the river,” he adds.

The YJA, in collaboration with the Thames River Restoration Trust, also developed a replicable model of community river restoration along the Yamuna in 2013. “Not only are some of those community groups still working on our guidelines, but subsequent river rejuvenation programmes have also used aspects of our model,” Misra says. They are helping draft a programme to rejuvenate the Tons river in Madhya Pradesh along similar lines.

Unfortunately, most of the deadlines imposed by the NGT in 2015 haven’t been met yet.

“We’re ensuring continued pressure and keeping a constant vigil on new activity that might be potentially damaging to the river,” Misra avers.

In its judgement, the NGT recognised that the cleanup of Yamuna is a herculean task that can’t be accomplished in a hurry. But these determined watchdogs of the Yamuna are doing what they can to ensure that the river — and the mass of humanity living along its banks — looks forward to a cleaner tomorrow.

To learn more, visit peaceinst.org, follow Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan on Facebook or email at yamunajiye@gmail.com