Delhi’s new Water Plan confronts old failures

Last week, the Delhi government announced that it will frame a Water Master Plan for the city. Though belated, the decision is a step in the right direction. Improving water quality — especially cleaning the Yamuna along its 22-km stretch in the capital — was a major campaign plank for the BJP in the run-up to the 2025 Delhi assembly election. Yet, after a year in office, the BJP government’s record remains underwhelming. It has claimed progress in cleaning the river. The latest report of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) suggests that water quality has improved compared to last year. However, the same data indicate that contaminant levels remain significantly above permissible limits. Particularly worrying is the fact that the city’s sewer system carried far more pollutants into the river in January than it did in October. Although the pollution load eased somewhat in February, the volume of untreated sewage entering the Yamuna remained worryingly high. The pattern suggests that after the abundant monsoon rains, a dry winter has left the river without the flows necessary to cleanse itself. The data should prompt a serious conversation on how pollutants can be reduced during the lean season.

So far, the Delhi government’s approach to cleaning the Yamuna has relied heavily on sewage treatment plants. Over the past year, several of these facilities have been upgraded. However, the latest DPCC data indicate that they are still not adequately equipped to tackle the scale of the river’s pollution. More importantly, large parts of the city remain outside the sewer network. Earlier this month, the Delhi Jal Board informed the National Green Tribunal that it is putting systems in place to accurately assess the volume of sewage discharged into the river through the city’s major drains. Such systems are long overdue.

The water board also told the tribunal that the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board is working to address delays in connecting settlements to the city’s sewage network. Its statement points to a chronic problem. Fragmented institutional responsibilities have long hampered the interceptor drain project, which was meant to capture sewage from smaller drains in the city’s slum clusters before it could flow into the larger drains that empty into the Yamuna. Addressing this more than decade-long deficit will be among the many challenges the proposed Water Master Plan must confront. The Delhi government has little time to lose.