Background
The Yamuna River is deeply entrenched in historical & cultural significance but yet it stands as a stark contrast to its once life-giving form. Flowing through the heart of Delhi, the river has been overwhelmed by decades of unchecked urbanisation, untreated sewage, and now stands as a reminder of the ecological consequences of urbanization and facile attempts at protection.
Despite the repeated clean-up drives and policy commitments by changing governments and agencies, the Yamuna has continued to deteriorate (News X, 2025), posing not just an environmental crisis but also a public health crisis. It has also become a big political flashpoint.
The 40km stretch of river that runs through the capital accounts for nearly 80% of the river’s pollution load. Major sources of this pollution include untreated domestic sewage, industrial effluents, and solid waste, much of which enters the river through 22 major drains (Govt. of NCT, Delhi, 2025). In many areas, particularly downstream of Wazirabad, the Yamuna has been reduced to stagnant, blackened flow, unfit for any form of life, let alone for human consumption.
Under the assessment of the Central Pollution Control Board of 33 locations of the Yamuna between January 2021 to May 2023, the Dissolved Oxygen (DO), pH, Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD), and Fecal Coliform (FC), none of the seven sites in Delhi and six sites in Haryana complied (PTI, 2025).
More recently, the Delhi Government has unveiled a 45-point action plan for the Yamuna (ANI, 2025). The comprehensive framework is aimed at reducing the pollution levels of the river, with support from the Delhi Jal Board. It focuses on strengthening sewage infrastructure, curbing the inflow of untreated waste, and enhancing solid waste management in a time-bound manner to be completed by next year with a budget of INR 9,000 crore (ANI, 2025). The new framework brings with it new hope for the life of the river as it focuses also on the construction of treatment plans and improving inter-agency coordination between the Delhi Jal Board, municipal bodies, and environmental regulators.
Existing Institutional Legal Framework and New Policy
Many attempts have been made to revitalize the rivers in India, and the concerns for Yamuna have remained at the forefront for many decades now. The institutional framework for the rejuvenation of the Yamuna River has evolved significantly since the launch of the Yamuna Action Plan in 1993, which marked the beginning of formalised efforts to address the river’s pollution.
Implemented in multiple phases with financial and technical assistance from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the YAP focused on constructing sewage treatment plants (STPs), improving sewer networks, and promoting community sanitation (GOI, 2009). Despite being one of the largest river restoration projects in India, the YAP fell short in achieving lasting outcomes due to fragmented governance, insufficient maintenance, and the lack of urban planning. The lack of coherent urban planning for the Yamuna is evident in the fragmented, retroactive, and often reactive approach to its management. As the CSE report also points out, the river’s fate has often been shaped by a continuous cycle of committees, action plans, and Public Interest Litigations (PILs), rather than by a sustained, integrated vision.
This tapered governance has undermined ecological restoration, as short-term directives and isolated projects often fail to address both the scale of the issue and completely overlookk structural issues driving pollution, encroachment, and degradation of the river.
As India evolved legally, more initiatives began to take shape in the form of the “Maili se Nirmal Yamuna” campaign and court-mandated directives led towards the recognition of legal personhood of rivers, both of which emphasised the need for a rights-based approach to restoration (Salim v. State of Uttarakhand, 2017).
A notable shift began with the 2023 proposal to establish a dedicated Yamuna Cleaning Board, aimed at consolidating responsibilities across multiple agencies. The decision was ultimately taken to set up two separate committees for the Yamuna River that will work together based on the Centre’s directives (ETV Bharat, 2025). The first high-level committee was set up under the Chief Minister, and the other under the Chief Secretary (ETV Bharat, 2025). The High-Level committee made several recommendations for the action plan, noting department-wise action items and progress (DPCC 2023; DPCC 2024).
The Delhi Government’s commitment in March 2025 to allocate INR 500 crore towards decentralised STPs, drain intercepts, and mechanised waste removal marked a turning point towards modular decentralised wastewater management and source-level intervention (India Today, 2025). It lays out the budget for implementation for nearly 40 decentralised sewage treatment plants (DSTPs). The plan involves the construction of class 4 decentralised sewage treatment plants, drain-tapping projects, and installations of advanced pollution control equipment(India Today, 2025). Additionally, a dedicated fund has been allocated to intercept wastewater from large drains before they discharge into the river (India Today, 2025).
This was followed by the 45-point action plan with a larger budget allocation and more comprehensive planning in a time-bound manner. The AMRUT 2.0 initiative of the Central Government has also sanctioned INR 800 crore in July 2025, to expand the sewer networks in unauthorized areas to prevent untreated sewage from entering the Yamuna river (GOI, n.d.).
Technical Challenges and Gaps in Yamuna Rejuvenation
Despite the renewed momentum behind the Yamuna Rejuvenation efforts, several technical and institutional hurdles persist. One of the major challenges is scaling the sewage treatment infrastructure to meet the existing treatment gap. Nearly 31% of sewage generated in Delhi remains untreated, and the improvement has been slow since 2022-2023 (Express News Service, 2023; DPCC, 2024).
The report by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) found that between March 2023 to February 2025. That out of an estimated 764 million gallons per day (MGD), the gap was 233 MGD (Govt. of NCT Delhi, 2025). While decentralized sewage treatment plants are a key solution, their implementation at scale requires robust planning, adequate land availability, and standardized operations.
To tackle this, the government must consider public-private models for the operation and maintenance of the STPs and sludge recycling facilities with a regulatory framework for accountability, financial viability, and equitable service delivery (Raghib, 2025).
The data reflects the under-utilisation of the capacity of the sewage treatment infrastructure. Earlier reports suggested that nearly 75% of the STPs lack proper bacterial disinfection units such as chlorination, UV, or ozonation, leading to effluents that still carry dangerous coliform and BOD levels well above permissible standards (Shrji, 2011). Although these standards have since improved, there is still room for STPs to function more effectively to successfully carry the load of effluents and wastewater released into the river. According to the DPCC February 2024 progress report. 14 sewage treatment plants meet the standards set by CPCB/ DPCC, and 23 STPs do not (CSE, 2025).
Notably, the standards have been revised since the plants were constructed and are more stringent than the prescribed standards by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (CSE, 2025). In the case of Delhi, the standards by the CPCB, the BOD, and TSS norms are now 10 mg/l, which is significantly lower than the national average of 30 mg/l (CSE, 2025).
Additionally, from differential standards, the new plan envisions performance-linked funding for key implementing agencies like the Delhi Jal Board, Delhi Development Authority (DDA), and Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). This would involve monthly reporting on water quality parameters like DO, DOD, and coliform levels, but standardising and auditing metrics across agencies has proven challenging (Aijaz, 2024).
Another gap is the challenge of monitoring. According to the high-level committee, the Delhi e-Pragati Dashboard was to monitor projected (DPCC, 2023); however, the dashboard is not accessible. On-ground implementation also suffers from low public awareness and participation. While decentralized STPs offer promising results, their success hinges on local buy-in and community stewardship, both of which can be limited.
Public awareness and community participation remain pivotal challenges in implementing decentralized STPs along the Yamuna. Despite technical advances, the absence of sustained local involvement undermines their effectiveness (Tyagi, 2025).
According to new data as of June 2025, the capacity utilization of the STPs was 2,955 MLD, of which 2,014 MLD of treated sewage from 23 STPs complied with discharge standards prescribed by the DPCC (PIB Delhi, 2025a). The success of the decentralization of the STPs depends not just on infrastructure deployment but on embedding community stewardship into the system, to tackle which the government must tackle by coming up with more inclusive frameworks.
Another technical challenge that persists is the flaw in the current method to estimate wastewater quality. As highlighted in the CSE report in 2025, most municipal calculations are based on a simplistic assumption that 80 percent of the water supplied by the city utility eventually becomes wastewater. While this serves as a convenient benchmark, it overlooks critical variables and consists of several gaps.
The report points out that, firstly, there is an issue of outdated demographic data. Since India has not conducted a national census since 2011, current population figures are based solely on projections. Such estimates may fail to capture the true scale and density of urban growth, leading to an underestimation of wastewater volumes.
Secondly, the report points to the problem of ‘unaccounted for water’, the substantial proportion of water lost in the distribution network due to leakages, theft, or inefficiencies. This water never reaches households or industries and cannot contribute to wastewater generation, yet it is simply implicitly included in calculations.
These data gaps hinder effective planning and investment in sewage treatment infrastructure, ultimately impacting the management of wastewater.
Aspirations for Yamuna: Towards Integrated and Equitable Rejuvenation
The aspirations for the Yamuna go far beyond pollution control; it rests on the vision of a living river that flows clean, supports biodiversity, sustains livelihoods, and reconnects with the people of Delhi as a shared public and cultural space. To realise this vision, there is a need for a unified institutional framework with a single empowered authority that can coordinate across departments, monitor implementation transparently, and enforce accountability across agencies (Sharma, 2025).
Other campaigns have also shared the ideas for rejuvenation. Campaigns such as Delhi Jal Board’s “I love Yamuna” campaign and school initiatives such as “Maa Yamuna Swacchta Abhiyan” have sought to involve more local communities and create more public awareness. Their scope and implementation are limited.
The 2025 mission of the central government aims to enhance the quality of Yamuna bathing through real-time monitoring; however, there’s still a long way to go (Sharma, 2025). Even now, systemic problems are long-standing, as only 565 MGD of the projected 792 MGD of sewage is properly handled, leaving more than 220 MGD to be released in sewers that empty into the river (Raghib, 2025).
Past efforts have been hampered by fragmented governance.
Yet this framework provides a more comprehensive planning for coordination between state governments, including Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The central leadership is set to lead the collaborative effort to unify action, especially for the regular and transparent third-party testing of STP discharges between the states (PIB Delhi, 2025b). Regular joint reviews have also been institutionalised. These mechanisms, along with the efforts to develop Yamuna riverfronts for collective public use, reflect the shift in planning and urgency.
After decades of fragmented policies and symbolic interventions, the 2025 multi-ministerial action plan signals a more integrated and accountable approach. The current wave of political will and financial investment offers a rare and powerful opportunity to embrace a holistic river basin approach, especially one that balances infrastructure development with ecological restoration and social equity. It is a chance not only to revive the Yamuna as a living river but also to restore a sense of collective hope and connection that had long begun to fade.
