New Delhi: The Delhi government is going to set up Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs) at 27 “redevelopment” areas across the city by the end of this year to treat sewage, officials said.
The city has perennially been battling to make the Yamuna River clean, but the task is made tougher with the untreated sewage flowing into it from these unorganised industrial areas.
Some of the bigger of these areas are located in Anand Parbat, Samaypur Badli, Dabri, Dilshad Garden, Jawahar Nagar and Karawal Nagar.
At present, Delhi has 13 CETPs, which cater to 17 notified industrial areas with a total capacity of treating around 200 million litres of water per day (MLD).
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee has several times in the past pointed out that these unorganised areas have been grossly flouting the pollution norms by discharging heavy metals into stormwater drains, which flow into the river.
“In a recently held meeting between the centre and the state, this issue was identified, and a solution of installing industrial waste treatment plants was decided,” an official said.
Varun Gulati, a water activist, said the existing CETPs, which were constructed by Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (DSIIDC) around 20 years back, also have often failed to meet waste treatment standards.
“Most of them are now managed by private societies, except for two in Narela and Bawana. In 2012, it was decided that these redeveloped areas would get CETPs in three years. Almost 13 years have passed, but that work has not even started,” he said.
The government has also directed a drone survey of large drains to spot encroachment.