My letters - How cultural rites and rituals are impacting Yamuna's water quality

This is with reference to Niyati Seth's and Apoorva Bama's How cultural rites and rituals are impacting Yamuna's water quality, (December, 30). I fully agree with the author. Industrialization and urbanization have already deteriorated the water quality of rivers and lakes in India. Another emerging factor contributing to the degradation is the cultural activities. There are many other tributaries and rivers that flow across India, but we, the inhabitants of New Delhi, rely mostly on river Yamuna for our household, agricultural requirements and owing to its holiness, Yamuna is the site for carrying out rites and rituals. The quality of Yamuna's water is mostly degraded by the discharge of industrial wastes and sewage, but cultural activities add insult to injury and exacerbate the problem. The immersion of idols made of POP, paints, plastic, flowers, polyethylene bags, decorations all compromise on the water quality. The white froth-like foam on the Yamuna river during Chhath Puja was literally a sight to see. All the water quality parameters are out of permissible, Infact way beyond it! According to studies, the levels of heavy metals in the water increased dramatically following such actions. From the permitted limit of 0.05mg/L, the chromium level climbed 11 times. From the typical 0.3mg/L limit, the iron concentration surged 71 times. The levels of Ammonia were also seen to be quite high. All these heavy metals and the steep increase in their presence in water can contaminate the food chain, ultimately damaging our body parts like brain, kidney, liver. This water in the Yamuna river is neither fit for drinking, nor for other purposes. It is a complete waste now. Keeping this in view, the government has launched the Yamuna action plan and a few others to improve the quality of water, but these are far and few with no effective planning and implementation. The increasing anthropogenic cultural activities in these rivers have been overlooked with no rules in place to challenge and combat this. When this is the case, when people are let loose with no rules put on their activities, it is nothing but the government's fault. The government needs to enforce stringent laws to keep the water quality of the rivers healthy. Along with that, we, the citizens also need to consider a major mind shift and adopt eco friendly practices that are sustainable for the society like buying eco-friendly idols, etc. When both of these things are adopted, the quality of water in Yamuna will surely improve and will be helpful in the long run.