9 December 2020.

Introduction:

River Yamuna has been showing frothing for past one decade and it is continuously on the rise for past five years. This is an indicator of degrading of Yamuna River Ecosystem. Both physical and chemical factors are responsible for frothing.

Factors responsible for frothing:

• Physical Factors: Yamuna falls from a height in Okhla barrage which leads to bubble formation. In addition to this in winters the temperature dips to near zero which also aids in forming of froth.
• Chemical Factors: Ammonia coming from untreated household waste, phosphates coming from detergents which released both from houses and industries.
•  The froth on Yamuna river reflects the adverse impact of manmade activities on environment.

Source of effluents falling in Yamuna.

• Most of the pollution of river Yamuna comes from Wazirabad where it enters Delhi.
• According to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee and the CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board), 90% of the domestic wastewater in the city flows into river Yamuna.
• Almost about 58% of the waste of the national capital is dumped into the river.
•  The waste water mainly comes from household activities and therefore it is highly rich in phosphate compounds, laundry chemicals and detergents.
• The samples collected show that the phosphate concentration in the river is 0.51 mg/litre.
•  It should be between 0.005 and 0.05 mg/litre.
• More than 800 million litres of untreated sewage is dumped into Yamuna every day.
• Also, around 44 million litres of industrial effluents are discharged in to the river. CPCB says that the river water contains 1.1 billion faecal coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres of water.
• The permissible level is 500 coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres.