We are in process of compling through secondary sruvey and also reaching out to professionals and domain experts from water, river management, environment, agriculture, social science and others, with the objective to understand their initial views on our approach to River Yamuna. These initial views would form the building block for deliberations through workshop and virtual meetings amongst the experts. The outcome of these workshops and virtual seminars leading to concluding views/opinion would be submitted to respective government agencies for their perusal.
Some of the views compiled/shared with us-
Prof. V.N. Vajpayee, Delhi University
Prof Vajpayee, who teaches hydrogeology(2007) at Delhi University, believes recharge zones are important because their soil constitution consists of highly porous silt and sand. The flood plains are like an invisible lake under the sun, but whereas a lake loses water through evaporation, the “concealed lakes” in these flood plains do not.
Yanuma Jiye Abhiyan
Rivers are not merely channels that transport water; they are complex ecological systems which interact with their drainage basins collecting from them water, nutrients and organic matter and redistributing these downstream. They support large biological diversity, support the humans and their activities, and provide several services that no other ecosystem can.
The rivers, especially in tropical and monsoon driven countries like India are dynamic, three dimensional systems dependent upon longitudinal, lateral and vertical transfers of water, material, energy and biota. For its revival the river needs an ecological restoration plan which highlights the value of its services and not any developmental plan which looks upon floodplain as a wasteland waiting to be developed and reclaimed as real estate / river front
Source: Sept 2007, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan Blog
Prof. Vikram Soni, physicist with the National Physical Laboratory (2007)
Prof Soni pointed out that Delhi has around 100 sq. km of flood plain with an average depth of 30 metres. Even if we are to give this flood plain a conservative 50 per cent water holding capacity, this gives us more than one billion cubic metres of water. If the value of a water tanker in the capital is Rs.1,000 for 10,000 litres of water, the recharge value of the flood plain works out to over Rs.10,000 crores a year.
Source: Yamuna Jiye Ahiyan Blog
Dr. S. S. Negi, Director, Forest Research Institute
Hindu 10 July 2008
Dehra Dun-based Forest Research Institute has come up with a new plan to clean up the river. We have already used the model in Dehra Dun for cleaning water that was being polluted by effluents from a nearby cement factory. Based on this successful model we have asked the DDA to create a pool near Raj Ghat where we will grow special water plants to clean up Yamuna. The procedure, known as root zone treatment, will involve growing fragmented plants in a standing pool that use bacteria to clean the water.
Source: http://yamunajiyeabhiyaan.blogspot.com/2008/08/new-plan-to-revive-yamuna-hindu-10-july.html
Yogita Shukla, PhD (Space Sciences)
We need to bring back our age-old culture and traditions of de-silting the waterbodies and make it a people’s movement to connect with the roots. This project needs to be a people’s movement given the scale and requirement of regular interventions of cleaning and de-silting our rivers and water bodies.
Pravin Kumar, Msc Tech. IIT Roorkee, M Tech IIT Dhanbad
Geology of the proposed area is the alluvial formations overlying the Quartizitic bedrock of Aravalis. Removal of alluvium will help in increasing load bearing capacity and competency of the stream as well as water intake capacity of the stream. It will help in recharging ground water and improve ground water quality over a period of time. Huge landfill of sand doesn’t seem to be problematic if the slope stability factors are taken into account.