Commonwealth Games to Impacting Delhi River

Commonwealth Games to Impacting Delhi River



May 2007 -   Water campaigners are worried that 
the floodplains of the river running through India's capital city are 
being converted into shopping malls, residential and commercial 
establishments, and hotels in advance of the 2010 Commonwealth Games. 
Construction for the 10 day sporting event in Delhi will ruin the 
ecosystem, they fear. 
A 47.3 hectare (118 acre) site for the Games Village has been selected on 
the banks of the Yamuna River, in the heart of the capital with a capacity 
for 8,500 athletes and officials. To be built at a cost of US$40 million, 
the Games Village is being underwritten by the government of India. 
Other sites for the Games throughout Delhi are being built and upgraded, 
but environmentalists say the already polluted river will suffer. 
To build public awareness about threats to the Yamuna River, a meeting is 
being held on May 19 in the Indian capital of New Delhi. The gathering is 
taking place at the Satyagraha Mandap, Gandhi Darshan, Rajghat, the 
memorial built to Mahatma Gandhi, considered to be the father of the 
Indian independence movement. 
The event is being organized by Jal Biradari, a movement which describes 
itself as an Indian "national water brotherhood." Its members include 
people from all walks of life including farmer groups, social groups, 
nongovernmental organizations, research institutions, social scientists 
and water experts. 
Jal Biradari says it is concerned about "water conservation, forest-soil 
management, promotion of water conservation work as well as with struggle 
to re-establish community water rights." 
Since 1998 through its awareness programs and water conferences, the Jal 
Biradari has been aiming to develop a "people-oriented national and state 
water policy" under the banner of "rejuvenating nature by living with 
nature." 
Delhi residents swim in the garbage-filled Yamuna River. 
On May 19, the group will discuss how to revive the river and its 
ecosystem "in the light of the fact that it's being systematically 
decimated by the government and private sector." 
Water campaigner and journalist Nitya Jacobs said, "Its floodplains are 
being converted into malls and residential and commercial establishments 
like hotels in the name of a mere 10 day long sporting event called the 
Commonwealth Games." 
The Yamuna River, sometimes also called the Jamuna or Jumna, is the 
largest tributary of the Ganges River. It runs for 1,370 kilometers from 
its source in the Himalayan mountains at Yamunotri, in northern India. 
Flowing through the states of Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the river 
merges with the Ganges at Allahabad. The cities of Delhi, Mathura and Agra 
lie on its banks. 
The Yamuna is one of the most polluted rivers in the world, especially 
around the Indian capital. Many unsuccessful attempts have been made to 
clean it. These were hampered by Delhi's high population density, the 
illegal dumping of untreated water and solid waste into the river, and 
inadequate government monitoring together with mismanagement of projects 
to clean it. 
Delhi alone dumps an estimated 3,296 million liters (870 million gallons) 
of sewage per day into the river. 
Water in the Yamuna remains stagnant for almost nine months of the year, 
making the situation worse. 
Now the Yamuna's flood plain is being developed for power plants, metro 
stations, the Akshardham temple and the Commonwealth Games Village. 
The Akshardham temple on the bank of the Yamuna River in Delhi. (Photo 
courtesy Miguelle Guisson)
"This will impact the water security of the city in the long-term and 
change the character of the river," the Jal Biradari group warned. 
The Yamuna, which bisects Delhi, was once its perennial source of drinking 
water. It enters Delhi at Wazirabad and leaves the city at Okhla, dividing 
it into eastern and western parts. 
Jal Biradari argues that buildings on the flood plain also will aggravate 
the water scarcity in the city of Delhi. Groundwater levels are falling 
between one and two meters (three to six feet) every year in many parts of 
Delhi. 
Reducing the flood plain area could make this fall further, the water 
campaigners say. 
They point to the restrictive effect of existing bunds, protective walls 
that have restricted the flood plain. 
Many lakes and ponds in east Delhi that were filled by the flood waters of 
the Yamuna dried up when they were cut off from the river by these bunds 
and housing or commercial complexes. 
This latest campaign to save the Yamuma will begin by studying causes of 
pollution of the river and the role it plays in life of the people of the 
Delhi region. 
People have built homes on the Yamuna River floodplain near Delhi. (Photo 
courtesy Ganges River Partnership Project)
"It will diversify into raising awareness, based on its understanding, 
among citizens of how to contribute to reducing pollution in the river," 
said Jal Biradari. 
"The campaign will also propagate rainwater harvesting on rooftops, lawns, 
parks and roads through people-oriented decentralized water harvesting," 
the group said. 
The organizers hope that by focusing attention on the water problems of 
India's capital city it will create a ripple effect through the country 
about the need to improve the condition of rivers, lakes, streams and 
other water bodies. 
India has worked on a Rs 10,000 million (US$246.6 million) Yamuna Action 
Plan to improve the water quality of the river. Although critics see it 
has having "achieved very little" to stop pollution in the river, there 
are now plans for a second Yamuna Action Plan that will cost twice as 
much. 
Jal Biradari says its grassroots campaign will aim for people's 
involvement to stop the pollution of the river and encroachment on the 
river's flood plains as the government "has not proved equal to the task." 

While criticizing the government, Jal Biradari is also seeking government 
involvement in decisionmaking for the Yamuna, particularly in managing 
water resources. 
In the long term, Jal Biradari aims to create a national river revival 
movement and a water education movement to safeguard water and rivers at 
the ecosystem level. 
The campaign to save India's rivers coincides with the 150th anniversary 
of the First War of Independence in 1857 against colonial British rule. It 
is "a time when it important to underline our responsibilities as citizens 
of independent India," said Jal Biradari. 
View a map of the 2010 Commonwealth Games venues, click here.  
  

       
      

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