Wazirabad threshold: Yamuna before and after

Standing atop a bridge leading to a pumping station at Wazirabad water works, Rashid Khan, 65, looked with an intent gaze at the abundant water.


This was the Yamuna he remembered from his younger days when he was into keeping elephants. He had lived near the ITO bridge with elephants for almost 30 years. Around 10 years ago, the government forcibly evicted them. Long before coming to the Yamuna banks, Rashid and his family had stayed at Ashoka Hotel to enable haathi rides for foreign tourists. 
Over the years, Delhi has had just 8-10 families – all from the same clan and there were a total of 20-22 elephants. But only 10-12 elephants remain today. 
Looking at a bountiful Yamuna, Rashid recalled, “The elephants used to enjoy in monsoon the most, bathing for hours. In summers, it was the hand pump drilled into the Yamuna flood plain, which was used for bathing them.”

Rasheed Khan, Hathi Wallah

The spot where he was standing was part of Delhi Jal Board’s water treatment plant (WTP) at Wazirabad, where members of the Yamuna Katha have gathered at the first stop of day one.   
RK Garg, DJB’s member (water works) gave an elaborate explanation about the water supply system and various sources of water for the national capital. There were interesting nuggets of information like, as much as 40 % of Delhi’s water needs - 325 MGD is the quantity of raw water – comes from Yamuna, or, of the various water user states of Yamuna, Haryana gets 45 %, Uttar Pradesh 30 %, Delhi just 6 % and the rest is shared by Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan. As much as 11 million cubic metres of water, i.e. almost 85 % of the water in the river in the entire year is contributed by rains. 
“In Delhi, up to 40-50 lakh people live in unauthorized colonies/slums in Delhi. Their sewage comes directly – untreated – to the river Yamuna,” he lamented. Immediately downstream of Wazirabad barrage start the various drains that empty Delhi’s sewage into the Yamuna. There is no natural water flow after this. 

R K Garg, member of DJB

Rashid nodded in agreement. Over the years he had seen the quality of Yamuna waters change from bad to worst. Overall, the quality of life on the Yamuna banks had changed for worst. Earlier, there was ample fodder for elephants. Fodder was patela – tall grass, sugarcane, jowar , bajra and even papal trees. “But more than anything else, slowly the pollution in Yamuna started taking its toll on the elephants’ skin,” Rashid rued. 
Dr Ritu Priya, public health specialist threw light on the history of Delhi as a capital city, specially, the city’s water history. There was a major cholera epidemic in the 1980s. “Over the ages, Delhi had always been a planned city. But in modern times, the unplanned growth has proved to be a major health hazard.” 

One of Rasheed's elephants getting prepared for a ride

For instance, British New Delhi had no place for class IV employees, she said. So they inhabited fringe colonies. These kind of colonies increased the quantity of untreated sewage being flown into the river. 
Her message: Go for de-centralisation of the water planning system. Second, use modern technology to do natural harvesting and revive natural streams. And last but never the least involve the citizens. “It should be part of the planning as to how we relate to the river,” she said.  

Dr Ritu Priya, JNU, public health specialist

But that is not the case. Government has taken over the ownership of the river from the community and hence restricted people’s access to the river. Rashid is a living example for it. With several government restrictions, there is hardly anyone in the elephant keeping business. The youngsters have turned to horse buggy business. 


Unaware of the plight of youngsters from elephant keeping families, another bunch of youngsters was quite gung ho about the Yamuna and ways to reduce pollution. Sardar Patel School from Lodi Colony had sent its students to Wazirabad WTP. The students – Abhilasha Bakre, Anshula Mehta, Ananjay Sharma, Adarsh Kumar Singh, Shrishti Banzal, Khushboo Chattree and Anoushka Kopila – all from class IX – made a presentation on the concept and their understanding of the National Urban Sanitation Policy vis-à-vis water distribution system, problems due to growing urbanization and possible solutions by community awareness. 


Then, DJB’s quality control officers Vinod Kumar and Pritam Singh showed the group around the water treatment plant, the various steps involved in water treatment. 
GIZ’s Regina Dube asserted it was important to understand the historical dimension for city’s sanitation history. “For the future, we need to understand and link the historical and the cultural dimensions. Also, people from the entire society need to sit together and come up with a developmental solution.”
Earlier, Arne Panesar from GIZ had pointed out how he had badly wanted to meet the haathiwala and ride elephant since he was in college. “The river is very much a symbol for many cities. But experts alone are not enough for thinking about rivers, we need people from all fields,” Panesar added.
Agreed Rashid, who is very clear about his ideas about the Yamuna: “Aadmi change hua, toh darya bhi hua (As the man changes, so has the river).”


So true, especially for Delhiites!!

Yamuna at its best state – in Jagatpur village near Delhi

That Yamuna looks like a river – unlike the filthy drain – upstream of Wazirabad was known to many of the Yamuna Katha yatris. But no one – except of course Chhotu Khan and Rashid Khan – was ready for the sight at Jagatpur, a small prosperous village in north Delhi on Thursday morning.

Vast swathe of fertile alluvial soil with taller-than-human weeds, a dusty winding road from the bund road leading to the water front and then … water sans garbage, sans plastic waste, literally free from all kinds of pollution. “I just can’t believe we are in Delhi on the Yamuna bank,” said an excited Arun Raj, who works with Force, an NGO working on water.  

Arun, a passenger with the core group who joined for the day, had read about the history of the river and its connection with the city. “Delhi has remained just as a fragment of the glorious history,” he said.

Jagatpur river front visit became an important fragment for the Yamuna Katha yatris. The group members thrilled to find the company of none other than a female elephant Rupa. Almost everybody spent time in observing the elephant, clicking photographs, asking the mahavat about Rupa’s habit.

Elephant Rupe carrying passengers Claudia and Ellen
(photo: Alex Köcher)

Apart from the major attraction of the beautiful unlike-in-Delhi Yamuna, the riverfront offered other attractions and photo opportunities too. A bunch of fishermen were readying for embarking on a fishing journey up stream of the Yamuna; a tractor and its trolley were brought for washing; minutes later, another tractor-trolley brought a newly painted boat to be deployed in waters and last but not the least – and what a sight it was – a herd of buffaloes gently entering the river and swiftly swimming across to the riverine island.

Local fishermen embarking to bring in fresh fish (photo: Alex: Koecher) 

That was a moment which everyone enjoyed what with the buffaloes actually posing for the shutterbugs and the buffalo owners with bright coloured turbans doling out sound bytes for the camera team. “I had always been disheartened with the state of Yamuna. Never had I imagined, Yamuna bank in Delhi would be so much fun,” said Urmi Chakraborty, a core team member and a geography teacher passionate about rivers.

Buffalos longing for a bath (photo: Alex Koecher)

After more than two hours of fun, the Yamuna Katha team mates moved on to the next stop: the Ramghat, just north of Wazirabad village. The ghat (stepped embankment), is actually a cluster of temples, old and new. A large area is semi-circles with temples on the river side with space for parking vehicles on one side and a number of small kuchcha structures/tea kiosks for selling pooja material and other items lining the other side.

The water front resembled a ghat in any of the rural riverfronts. The ghats, replete with temples, shiv lingas (Lord Shiva’s manifest symbol) jutting right in the middle of the ghat, idle row boats resting by the bank and the omnipresent garbage in the form of flower waste from pooja remains, wooden planks and even refuse by way of some plaster of Paris statues. No, it again did not seem like Delhi. But Delhi it was.

Ramghat (photo: Alex Koecher)

After a round of hot tea from one of the kiosks, team members dispersed to explore the bank on their own. In small huddles, the passengers and the core group members exchanged ideas and keenly debated various issues. But the common thread that was emerging – and was very evident as the time passed by – was that each one of the team was equally concerned about the Yamuna.

Core group members Gayatrie and Rasheed discussing over tea
(photo: Alex Koecher)

A delicious lunch followed by rest as the sun peaked right above in the blue October sky, and the team was ready for the next adventure. Golden Jubilee Park by the riverfront right in front of the historical Red Fort and the Salimgarh Fort was the next destination.

The sprawling park does offer a good site along the Yamuna bank with the Loha Pul (the old iron bridge) in the background completing the picture frame. However, the place had a gory history … in the immediate past. Dwijender Kalia, the in house river expert from the core members’ team reminded: “In 2006, almost a lakh people were thrown out from the slums that occupied this very place then known as Jamuna Pushta. The displaced were thrown away from the main stream yet again as they were offered rehabilitation at Bawana and such far flung places.”

Discussion in the open at Golden Jubilee Park (photo: Alex Koecher)

With this note, started the discussion about ‘Moving a Juggernaut called Delhi’. Manu Bhatnagar, water conservationist and an active academic expert associated with conservation NGO Indian National Trust for Arts and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) initiated and moderated the discussion. The group was joined by GIZ guests and a German elected representative Marie Luise von Halem, member of one of the state parliaments in Germany. The discussion ranged from water pollution, reasons for it, the reduced flow of water in the Yamuna, what does Yamuna offer to a city, what do people identify and understand with the city, the very definition of city, the approach of the planners and policy makers etc.

But one remark from Sadhuram, a rustic farmer tilling land near the Park, garnered the most appreciation. “They have shrunk the river. Upar wale ko nahi, apane aap ko bada maanate hai woh. (They think they are bigger than the Lord Almighty),” the simpleton said in a matter-of-fact tone.

Towards the end, the Yamuna Katha team was joined by an activist working for another river. Atul Jain, a passenger who had joined the team on day one, came calling in on day two too and brought along Anil Madhav Dave, a Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and an activist who runs an NGO called Narmada Samagra, which works in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat along the Narmada river.  

Dave, also a member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Water Resources, said a human being thinks about the river as if his or her efforts are going to “save” the river. “We think the river as water body and not a living eco-system. The moment we think it as a body, we think of reviving it, saving it et al. But tell me, what can a human with a life span of hardly 70-80 years do for a river which is flowing since ages? The idea is to ‘serve’ the river and not brag about saving it.”

The discussion ended on a note of optimism that each one in his or her capacity should continue its efforts for the river and work towards increasing the tribe.

The last item on the agenda, before returning to the hotel, was looked forward and enjoyed the most by every single member of the team. Kite flying opened up each other and brought in moments of sheer joy for all.         

Yamuna: Public places private encounters

Thousands of commuters cross the Nizamuddin bridge on Yamuna daily, but how many bother to pause for a while to look at Yamuna? A young student always posed a question during her travels across the bridge, “Why are these tall barricades here?”
The answers varied each time but it left a feeling in her - of the river being ‘cut off’ from the people. Not just Nizamuddin bridge, all other bridges across the Yamuna connecting the two banks have failed to bridge the gap between the river and its people. 

Several years later, for that young student Aparna Das, living in south Delhi’s Munirka, the journey from believing that a river has no importance for a city to what wonders a river can do to a city, has been exciting. Over last decade as architect Aparna, a senior member of the Yamuna Katha Team, dealt with homing to housing to habitations to settlements, it was only her recent encounter with Yamuna that opened a Pandora’s Box.

“The visit was fascinating. The image of Yamuna as a drain was nowhere to be seen. I was overwhelmed,” Aparna recalls. But the romanticism fell flat on face a few weeks on when she saw soon after the monsoon, an empty stinking Yamuna. “And I wonder how at all I missed those despicable drug addicts the first time round?” 

With face-to-face encounters of a different kind, Aparna questions her idea about Yamuna and its development every day. The questioned that troubles her often for cities and habitations: ‘How much is too much?’ has also found an echo in the river front’s development schemes. But the riverfront development may offer a revival.

Environmentalist Manu Bhatnagar had told a reporter some time ago: Yamuna is neglected as it is no more a part of city’s social fabric. It is no more a part of city’s community events such as swimming or boating or for that matter, trekking along the river bank.

One community event that comes to Aparna’s mind is the time when Durga idols are immersed into the river. “If I believe in the Durga idol, I believe in other things too. For me, the river is then not a mere water channel. It is my past and if I want to have my future, I need my past.” 

Durga Puja in Okhla, Delhi – 2011, Photo: Alexander Koecher

The Yamuna Katha is looking forward to understanding this ‘man-river’ connection through various dialogues. The discourse is imperative as the river seems to have lost its relevance to Delhiites.

The state of affairs can be gauged from the fact that when in May 2009, Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies carried out a survey, many of the respondents did not even know the name of the river flowing through Delhi.