Volunteers Clear Banks of New Delhi's Yamuna River by Hand

TaiwanPlus News

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.

Transcript

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.

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