Why Is Yamuna Covered With Foam After Chhath Cleanup? What Rekha Gupta Said

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta had promised a froth-free Yamuna during the Chhath festival in October. She fulfilled that promise. On October 28, Gupta - who took oath as the Chief Minister of Delhi nearly ten months ago - joined fasting devotees to offer prayers to the rising Sun on the bank of the river that appeared cleaner with no froth in sight. In the run-up to the festival, the city government launched an extensive campaign focussed on the cleanliness of the river. Ministers regularly inspected arrangements and preparations for a "grander" and "cleaner" festival.

However, weeks after the cleanup, the river is covered with toxic foam again. "It's not a one-day job," was Rekha Gupta's response when she was asked for the reason behind it.

"Cleaning the Yamuna is a huge project," she said while speaking to NDTV's Padmaja Joshi at the HT Leadership Summit.

"It's not like it will be cleaned up immediately after taking a few steps. Almost all the drains in the city flow into the Yamuna. After our (BJP) government came to power, we started work on upgrading the old drains. Only after all this work is done, Yamuna can be considered clean. It's not a one-day job," she said.

Read | 'Celebrated Diwali, Maintained Air Quality': Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta

Explaining what causes froth to froth on the river, she said, "The entire expanse of the river is not covered with foam. It's only the Okhla barrage area, where there is froth. The water there falls from an elevated point and since it's mixed with industrial effluents, it causes the froth".

Ahead of the Chhath festival, the Yamuna was sprayed with an anti-surfactant to clear up the foam. "During Chhath, we took extra steps to clean up the river as it was a matter of faith too. We can't spray the water with the chemical," the Chief Minister insisted.

"There is also one solution to this. We need to address the issue of industrial effluents flowing into the river. We need to impose a ban on these things. Only then Yamuna be cleaned," she added.

She also trashed the accusations by the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) that the BJP government supplied filtered water at one of the banks, Vasudev Ghat, of the Yamuna to create an illusion of a pristine-looking river before the festival.

"The water in the enclosure was Yamuna water itself. And, I don't care about what the opposition says," she said.

She also said that Delhi's pollution is a legacy problem, insisting there is no "magic wand" to solve it.