Reportedly we all Remember the images of river yamuna during Chhath Puja where devotees offered prayers standing in knee-deep water as toxic foam floated on the surface of the polluted river in november 2019? Just few months down the line, images of the very same river have surprised many.Yamuna river looks must cleaner now, thanks to the lockdown. prime minister narendra modi has called for a 21-day nationwide lockdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, everyone confined them to their homes and industries surrounding the river were also shut.
The closure of industrial units in the Delhi-NCR region have improved the quality of the river as toxic wastes and effluents are not being discharged in it, Raghav Chadha, vice chairman of delhi Jal Board said. He also said that the water will be tested to ascertain the percentage of improvement in the quality. Not just river Yamuna, but river ganga has also seen significant improvement as well.
"One-tenth of the pollution in the ganga river comes from industries. As industries are shut due to lockdown, the situation has become better. We have seen a 40-50 percent improvement in the Ganga. It is a significant development," Dr PK Mishra, professor at Chemical Engineering and technology, IIT-BHU. Due to rainfall on march 15-16 in areas where ganga flows, the water level has also increased, which means that its cleaning capacity has also increased. There is a considerable improvement if we look at the pre-lockdown period and after march 24.
