The River Yamuna: Devotion and Destruction

Thames21's River Programmes Coordinator Matthew Loveday travelled to the River Yamuna in India and discovered a river in crisis.

For a month, I travelled the length of one of India's most holy, most beautiful, and most environmentally degraded rivers - the River Yamuna, a major tributary river of the Ganges (Ganga) and over 1370 km long.

My journey took me from its source in the Himalayas, through to the northern plains of India and into Delhi, a huge metropolis and the capital of India. The Yamuna's confluence with the Ganges is sacred to Hindus and the river is revered as a goddess. At its source is the temple of Yamunotri, the second most holy pilgrimage site for Hindus and thousands of pilgrims make the arduous trek to the temple every year.

Pilgrims place a huge strain on the local environment and beneath the pristine snow lurks plastic bags, disposable raincoats and food wrappers congesting the river, contaminating the fragile ecosystem and harming wildlife.

The local mountain communities in the foothills of the Himalayas hold the river goddess in high esteem. As villages rely on the yearly pilgrimage season to provide their income, they understand that the protection of the environment is key to their wellbeing and livelihood. However the task of keeping the river and its banks free from rubbish are far more of a task than they alone can deal with.

Whilst the geography, people and environmental quality changed as I travelled from source to mouth, the underlying passion of the local communities for their river goddess remained strong, despite their ways of showing this passion sometimes coming at odds with the rivers' wellbeing.

As the river flows through urban areas the water quality drops, but it is in Delhi that the impact upon the river is most severe. According to the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi, while the Yamuna's 22-km stretch in Delhi is barely 2 per cent of the length of the river, it contributes over 70 per cent of the pollution load.

Delhi has little infrastructure in place to treat waste water and 3,500 million tonnes of raw effluent, sewage, factory waste water and contaminants enter the Yamuna in Delhi every day. The scale of pollution including pesticides and heavy metals has killed the river in Delhi and the World Health Organisation have classified the river as being category E - meaning the water is unfit even for domestic livestock bathing and consumption.

However for the poor and destitute of this metropolis the river is still a source of income, along with being somewhere to bathe and to drink. And for the majority of the city's population, the river remains a goddess, to be worshipped and glorified.

The state of the river in Delhi is breathtaking - the banks of the river were completely caked in a vast pile of floating debris. Rubbish, from plastic bags to religious offerings and flower garlands littered the river, with the black, acrid smelling water floating through the middle, the heavy metals and scum in the water giving it a metallic sheen and the smell can be unbearable.

Swechha, an Indian NGO campaigning for the improvement of the River Yamuna, have been working tirelessly for several years, especially with young people, to highlight the plight of this holy river by raising awareness of the state of the river, educating people about their actions and mobilising volunteers..

However, this grassroots work must be matched by changes in government policy and an investment in waste water treatment and sanitation that will meet the needs of Delhi's population while minimising the demand for fresh water. Serious time, money and planning must go into sewage treatment for the river to have a chance.

The River Yamuna plays an incredibly important role in the religious lives of millions of people. Yet many peoples' acts of devotion are in themselves an act of destruction. Conveying this message in a country where religion plays such a vital role is a monumental task. However through policy and attitudinal change, the Yamuna can be nurtured back to health and out of environmental crisis.

If you would like to find out more, contact Matthew by email.

Youth Yatra has been funded with support from the European Commission. In Partnership with the British Council and is led by UnLtd for England. The programme was led by Sweecha in India with partners Allianssi in Finland and Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka.