Terrible pictures of people taking a dip in the toxic waters of Yamuna on the sacred occasion of the Chhath festival are indeed worrying. The pictures are nothing but an indication of abject failure of the administration over a long period of time. Even more shameful has been the blatant political mudslinging by leaders of various parties by unnecessarily invoking the faith factor for people of a particular region — taking provocative politics to a new low and making the issue at hand even more complicated. There is no doubt that Delhi government has been failing persistently in cleaning Yamuna — right since 1991 when the Yamuna Action Plan-I was envisaged. But why should the faith of people of a particular region be forced into an issue that is completely environmental? It is disheartening that devotees have to face the compulsion of bathing into foam-covered toxic water, but Yamuna pollution is a perennial problem and affects the lives of people living on its banks all throughout the year. Since the efforts to clean the Yamuna started in 1991, many deadlines have been fixed and missed, and the result is that the status of cleanliness of the river has only deteriorated over time, rather than improving. Reasons are not hard to conceive. Most prominent factor responsible for polluting Yamuna is the dumping of effluents and wastes through 22 drains in the city. This, coupled with the improper functioning of Sewage Treatment Plans (STPs) in the city, has made the problem mammoth. Another factor is the wide upsurge in illegal colonies and industries at the outskirts of the city — discharge of effluents from which is largely unmonitored and unplanned, let alone the treatment of sewage. Upgradation of water treatment systems has not been commensurate with the increasing population burden. More worryingly, most of the unorganised settlements and industries don't even find mention in government data, leading to the shaping of a misleading outlook that could be detrimental to the efforts of cleaning Yamuna. The next issue is compliance. Non-compliance is one of the things that explains the administrative failure of the city over the past decades. Quite recently, in 2015, the National Green Tribunal formulated the 'Maily se nirmal Yamuna Revitalisation Plan' with March 2017 as the deadline. The plan could not meet its purpose, following which NGT formed a monitoring committee which was again dissolved after two years. Even something as basic as compliance to water treatment standards is overwhelmingly flouted in the city. Apart from a large quantity of untreated sewage, 22 out of the 33 sewage plants have been found to be non-compliant to water treatment standards, according to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. At certain places in Delhi, the composition of fecal coliform — microbes present in human and animal shit — in the waters of Yamuna is 700-800 times the prescribed level. These microbes could be responsible for a host of diseases including severe skin diseases — making the waters unfit for bathing and washing purposes. The only solution to the problem of water pollution in Yamuna is a long-term approach. The Delhi government must go beyond narrow political rhetoric to incorporate a wider outlook for firm administrative action. Hasty actions, driven by political compulsions, will only lead to further tangling up of the issue, rather than solving it. Currently, we have NCR Regional Plan-2041 — prepared by the National Capital Region Planning Board (NCRPB) — which aims at zero discharge of untreated sewage and industrial waste into Yamuna by 2026. The government should waste no time in implementing the plan. Additionally, it needs to hit right at the roots. Ramping up of infrastructural prerequisites could be the best place to start with. This would entail the maintenance of efficient STPs, ensure clear demarcation between sewage and stormwater drains etc. Parallel to this, an initiative has to be made towards mapping and monitoring of unorganised and illegal colonies and industries for ensuring proper checks on their effluent discharge. This certainly is a time-taking and complex problem — but there is no alternative to solving it. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of states, the Central government and the Supreme Court to facilitate the resolving of inter-state water disputes, as the quantity of flowing water is also a determinant of water pollution — as it affects dilution and saturation. There is a sensible route that can bring about the desired change in this direction. Firm political will is required to tread along that path.