The boat aimed to monitor the clean-up amid plans to set up an inland waterway in the Yamuna.

New Delhi:

An Indian Navy boat, deployed to help clean the river Yamuna in Delhi, is stuck in the very sewage it aims to remove.

The Navy’s ‘Barasingha’ has been docked for over a week at the riverbanks, trapped in the muck and waste in the Yamuna. Visuals show the boat stationed at a spot, with two Navy officers standing guard near the fetid river. The vessel, equipped for desilting, is unable to move because the water is too shallow; any boat needs at least two metres depth to move but because of decades of pollution, the depth is far less in parts of the river.

Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena had asked for the Navy boat in an attempt to dredge the waste accumulated in one of India’s most polluted rivers.

The desilting would cover a 22 km stretch from Wazirabad to Okha, believed to be the dirtiest and most toxic part. The boat also aimed to monitor the clean-up amid plans to set up an inland waterway in the Yamuna.

Now the sludge has to be dredged just so the boat can move and do its job, officials said. It is not clear whether any feasibility assessment was done before the boat was brought in.

Considered one of the most sacred rivers of India, the Yamuna is also among the most polluted because of human activity like the immersion of ashes of the dead, religious rituals, household waste and industrial effluents.

Because of the sewage, parts of the river have often been coated by thick white foam, unfit for any use.

According to a Delhi pollution panel report, nearly Rs 6,856 crore has been spent between 2017 and 2021 to clean up the Yamuna in Delhi, but large stretches of the river remain severely polluted.

Source link: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/video-navy-boat-trying-to-help-clean-yamuna-in-delhi-stuck-in-sewage-4120138