By IANS
Agra : US-based Indian environmental scientist Subijoy Dutta Monday offered a low-cost, high-result water cleaning technology to cleanse the Yamuna River in the city of the Taj Mahal.
Founder president of Yamuna Foundation for Blue Water in the US and author of “Environmental Treatment Technologies”, Dutta told IANS of his passion and commitment to restore the pristine purity and glory to Yamuna River, one of the worst polluted rivers in the world.
He has set up three centres along the Yamuna bank in Yamunanagar, Karnal and Panipat in Haryana to collect samples and constantly monitor the results of cleaning efforts by various governmental agencies and voluntary organisations.
The fourth is to be set up soon in Agra.
“Some of the tests – like for presence of carcinogenic hydrocarbons – can be done only with highly sophisticated technology available in the US,” Dutta said while interacting with the media at Goverdhan Hotel here Sunday evening.
Dutta, who pays a visit and carries out tests every six months, said the Yamuna Action Plan, on which hundreds of million of rupees had been spent, has not made any difference and the river remains a stinking drain.
“Obviously, there is need for greater involvement of citizens’ groups and volunteers for whom I have developed low-cost technologies which can remove 50 percent of the pollution load in the river, and thereby decrease our dependence on harmful water-treatment chemicals,” he maintained.
Dutta says air diffusers and simple floating or stationery aerators, which can be operated by generators and available motors and pumps, would make a significant difference.
“A simple diffuser would not cost more than Rs.10,000 and we can have a row of them over a stretch of 20 km. The oxygen content would definitely improve and solid wastes would be segregated and settle down. The water would be regenerated with oxygen and become healthier,” he said.
“Even sprinklers can be used to improve levels of biological oxygen demand. All these simple mechanisms and their operators are locally available. All you need is the will power and determination. It’s here that smaller citizens’ groups can come forward and supervise the running of these simple devices,” Dutta said.
All over the world, there was a fresh reawakening about the state of rivers.
“In India people think it is only government’s responsibility to clean the river. If government agencies failed to deliver the promises made, as has happened in Yamuna’s case, can we keep sitting with our hands folded tight?” Dutta asked.
At a conference on the Yamuna organised by Rivers of the World Foundation last week in New Delhi, Dutta outlined a 10-point strategy to revive Indian rivers, the chief being involvement of smaller groups armed with low cost technology and independent of the government pressures.
“Let the government do what it likes to do, but citizens of India need to wake up,” said Dutta.