Several residents in the national capital have shared pictures on their Twitter handle to complain of the poor quality of water they have been receiving in the past few days. Most of the residents have tagged the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government and its Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Some of the pictures show a black liquid that is resembling water.
Notably, one Twitter user @vernaculartube shared a Twitter thread on the Yamuna river and its high ammonia content. With an explanation of what excess ammonia does to water, the Twitter user explained that long-term damage due to ammonia toxicity include multiple organ failure.
The river had witnessed a significant drop in pollution levels during the lockdown. However, once it was lifted, the pollution levels had risen once again. Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai had told India Today that it wasn’t possible to clean the river during the lockdown as everything was closed. “Yamuna river does not originate from Delhi. During the lock-down, there was lock-down in the entire country, so from where the Yamuna starts, there were harmful chemicals found in the river from start till Delhi. But when the lock-down is over, work has started in factories with harmful chemicals, and the chemical has come out of those factories into the Yamuna River" Rai had said in the interview.
Residents, too, have been pulled up for their role in polluting the river, according to a Hindustan Times report published on Sunday. The report said that the Noida authority had pulled up 30 housing societies for disposing untreated sewage into drains that violate pollution norms. These drains flow into the Yamuna river.
As per the building bylaws-2010 of the Noida authority, each group housing complex must set up a sewage treatment plant (STP) on its premises to treat the waste water before being disposed of.
With the festive season to begin soon, the Yamuna river is likely to see more toxins flowing through it, unless new guidelines are imposed.
