The rapidly growing population of India's capital region is putting a pressure on local rivers. A dedicated group of volunteers is now clearing waste from the banks of the Yamuna River by hand.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00The Yamuna River flows through India's capital New Delhi, and its waters are considered by
00:08some to be sacred.
00:10This river bank was once highly polluted with human and industrial waste.
00:14But now, a group of volunteers led by environmental activist Pankaj Kumar is painstakingly cleaning
00:20it up by hand.
00:21If we would have come here five years ago, people wouldn't have come here.
00:26It was so polluted that you would find clothes lying around.
00:32No one would come here.
00:33The river bank would smell.
00:34But the kids, my team and the other team, worked very hard to remove all the solid waste.
00:43So today, this river bank has become such that you can come here and pray.
00:48You can come and sit here.
00:51New Delhi produces about 3.6 billion litres of sewage each day.
00:56However, less than half of the sewage is treated effectively with large amounts of trash ending
01:01in the Yamuna.
01:02Kumar and his group of volunteers can be seen gathering waste from the banks of the river.
01:07They hope to transform the river bank by cleaning the trash themselves.
01:20Today, the river bank is cleaner than a few years ago, bringing people back to the riverside.
01:31As India's economic growth picks up, the size of the cities like New Delhi has grown dramatically.
01:37This has led to waste increasingly ending up in the rivers.
01:41Kumar says removing trash is only a small part of the puzzle and hopes the local authorities
01:47will take the lead in treating Delhi's wastewater.
02:11High levels of pollution in the Yamuna river became a hot topic during the capital's legislative
02:16elections earlier this year.
02:18But while politicians debate solutions, a dedicated band of volunteers is taking action,
02:24showing that individuals can make a difference.
02:27Adil Brar and Scott Huang for Taiwan Plus.