The Delhi government is finalising an action plan to ensure that the Yamuna is not polluted due to idol immersion during the coming festive season this year.
While in the past, there have been attempts at controlling what is put into the rivers during the festivities, this is the first time that the government is planning a co-ordinated action plan to this effect.
The plan is likely to be implemented during Ganesha Chaturthi in September.
Senior officials of the state environment department said that the plan would help regulate the use of materials such as Plaster of Paris, chemicals and synthetic paints used in making idols. Authorities are also in the process of finalising the locations of artificial ponds, where smaller idols could be immersed, and the waste water could be sent to sewage treatment plants (STPs) for treatment.
Earlier, reports prepared by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) had revealed that the pollution levels in the Yamuna, including the levels of metals such as chromium, iron and nickle, shot up alarmingly every year after immersions. This results in increasing the chance of toxins entering the food chain through vegetables grown on the floodplains, it said.
Read more of this in a report by Joydeep Thakur published in Hindustan Times...
(Hope this is implemented with full force to save our river. Efforts in Jabalpur, MP, have proved successful too. State governments and voluntary organisations, all over, must seriously make efforts to address this issue. - Editor)
