Sheila asked to make use of a full Yamuna (Hindu 27 October 2010)

NEW DELHI: Good monsoon this year has ensured that the Yamuna is finally full in the Delhi stretch after a gap of 30 years. Taking note of this, the Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has written to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit “to make good use of this opportunity to restore the health of the river''.
Noting that action will be needed soon to ensure that “this opportunity is not lost”, the Minister listed the problems, efforts being made to tackle the situation and the approach to restore water on the stretch of the Yamuna passing through the Capital. In the letter, the Minister said he had forwarded a concept paper prepared by the National Ganga River Basin Authority on water augmentation in the Yamuna for the Delhi stretch.
In order to restore water in the river, he noted that the Government could look at construction of storage dams at the upstream to provide flow to the river and creation of ponds and recharging wells in the floodplains so that excess water could be stored during the monsoon and released during the lean season. Ponds may also be recharged with treated waste water wherever feasible, he noted. The Minister's note also looks at the negative aspects of the approach.
Speaking about water management in the Yamuna floodplains he noted: “The Yamuna floodplain in Delhi is the most promising area with regard to fresh surface water and ground water resource potential. Thus an insight into the groundwater resources, groundwater recharge potential and storage of surface water options in these floodplains is a necessity.”
He also noted that there is a need to store a portion of the water that Delhi's Yamuna gets through inter-State agreement, out of which monsoon run-off account for a large part, in artificially-created surface and sub-surface reservoirs for utilising during non-monsoon period.