QUALITATIVE STUDY OF YAMUNA WATER ACROSS THE DELHI STRETCH

Abstract

The Yamuna River, a tributary of the Ganges, is one of the most polluted rivers in India and especially in urban cities like Delhi is of a critical water quality. The discharge of untreated waste water is the main reason of the decrease in water quality. While emission sources like dumping of waste material, religious offering of flowers or food, immersion of idols, holy baths, clothes washing or cattle bathing can lead to serious pollution, industrial wastewater pollution is a serious matter of concern. The rapid growth and the high population density in India have made the situation worse and out of control. Although there are many schemes and policies such as The Yamuna Action Plan phase I, II and III, an improvement is seemingly noticeable. River Yamuna enters the Delhi Stretch at the Palla Village and is exited from the Okhla Barrage, this study is aimed to compare and analyze the water parameters upon its entrance and exit. The CPCB monitoring of Yamuna is done at 4 stretches in the Delhi stretch which are Wazirabad Barrage, Nizamuddin Bridge, ITO, and Okhla Barrage. The tests included parameters such as Biological Oxygen Demand, Chemical Oxygen Demand, Dissolved Oxygen, Chloride Content, pH and other physical parameters too. These results were measured during non-monsoon season where only 20 % of the annual rainfall appears. The results can vary in monsoon season but in comparison to the average values of CPCB most results were similar.Water Sources:-The earth has an abundance amount of water, but unfortunately, only a small percentage (about 0.3%), is even usable by humans. The other 99.7% is in the oceans, soils, icecaps, and floating in the atmosphere. Climate change has also altered the global hydrological cycle [49]. Even though a very less amount of water is usable, even much of the 0.3% that is usable is unattainable. The distribution of water is as: ocean water: 97.2 %, glaciers and other ice: 2.15 %, groundwater: 0.61 %, freshwater lakes: 0.009 %, inland seas: 0.008 %, soil moisture: 0.005 %, atmosphere: 0.001 %, rivers: 0.0001 % [1, 44-45]. Surface water is far easier to reach, which is why this becomes the most common source of potable water. The main sources of raw water in Delhi are through the river Yamuna (surface water and Western Yamuna Canal WYC), the Ganga (Upper Ganga Canal), Bhakra-Beas storage, groundwater through tube wells and ranney wells (specially designed high-capacity wells named after its founder Leo Ranney). The estimated water availability of NCT of Delhi from surface water sources, mainly the Yamuna, the Ganga and the WYC is approximately 1150.25 million cubic meters (mcm). The river Yamuna contributes 723 mcm, which is surely a significant part of the total water requirement. It enters at Palla, North West Delhi and then traverses through NCT and leaves at Jaipur in the South.