22-kilometer human chain will be held to raise awareness of Yamuna’s situation

A group of concerned citizens is organising a 22-kilometer-long human chain on the banks of the Yamuna on June 4 to raise attention to the river’s deplorable state, which is plagued by pollution and deterioration. The chain will run from Wazirabad in Delhi to Okhla, a 22-kilometer area that accounts for 75% of the river’s pollutant burden.

In this section of the river, twenty-two drains discharge into it. According to members of “Yamuna Sansad,” a campaign comprising environmentalists, conservationists, academicians, and researchers striving to revitalise the river, this would likely be the largest such attempt to sensitise the people of Delhi and assure their participation in cleaning the Yamuna in the capital. According to experts, the main cause of excessive levels of pollution in the river is untapped wastewater from unauthorised settlements and jhuggi-jhopri clusters, as well as poor quality of treated wastewater released by Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) and Common Effluent Treatment Plants (CETPs).