Report shows Yamuna’s dirty faece

We all know Yamuna water is not fit for bathing, let alone drinking. But the latest report from the Central Pollution Control Board, sure to raise a stink before the Commonwealth Games in the capital, says the river is so full of excreta that its water resembles that of a drain.

According to stipulated standards, water can be made potable with treatment if fecal coliform is less than 500 per 100ml and it’s fit for bathing if the number is less than 5,000 per 100ml. According to CPCB’s 10-month-long monitoring of the Yamuna at Nizamuddin, the lowest level of fecal coliform in the water was 4.4 lakh per 100ml, measured on May 4, 2009. That’s almost 100 times above the level considered safe for bathing.

Fecal coliform are bacteria that originate in excreta. Coliform levels reached as high as 1.79 crore per 100ml on February 3. Drinking water without conventional treatment but after use of disinfectant should not have a coliform count in excess of 50 per 100ml and must have a minimum DO of 6mg per litre.

Worse, the dissolved oxygen (DO) content of Yamuna water was ‘‘nil’’ on all the testing dates, though the water at Palla on all these days had a DO level of over 4 milligrams per litre, which is the standard. Palla is where the river enters Delhi, embarking on its most polluted 22-km stretch.

The monitoring took place between January 6 and October 6 last year, according to the latest report submitted to the Supreme Court by CPCB through counsel Vijay Panjwani. Even at Palla the water quality could not be termed potable because of the high level of fecal coliform. Except for the test results on September 2, 2009, when the fecal coliform was 2,900 per 100ml, in all other months it was above the stipulated 5,000 level. The highest coliform count recorded at Palla was 43,000, on July 7.

The alarming rise in the fecal coliform content in the Yamuna by the time it reaches Nizamuddin was mainly because of the number of drains that join it, throwing in untreated sewage and industrial effluent.

‘‘The total pollution load discharged through 25 drains in river Yamuna during the ten rounds of monitoring from January to October was between 174 tonnes per day to 330 tonnes per day,’’ CPCB said.

‘‘Although the drains are meant to carry storm water and tail-end discharge as part of the river basin system, at present the drains are being used to carry treated and untreated sewage and industrial effluent apart from storm water,’’ said the politely worded CPCB report.

CPCB is monitoring the water quality of the river at five locations — Palla, Madanpur Khadar, Okhla, the meeting point of Shahadra drain and Nizamuddin — along with 25 drains, in compliance with the orders of the Supreme Court and has submitted results of 140 rounds of monitoring since 1999.