New Delhi: After initiating the process of installing online continuous monitoring stations (OLMS) to check the real-time water quality status of Yamuna and drains, Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has floated a tender to procure a mobile van for collecting data from any location. Currently, the water quality of the river and drains is monitored manually, with samples collected once a month.The decision to procure a mobile van was taken at DPCC’s board meeting in Dec 2023. “However, we recently issued a tender for the supply, installation and commissioning of the mobile van. It will help in identifying the sources of pollution at any location in the city, including Yamuna stretch, the drains or the industrial areas,” said an official.During the board meeting of DPCC held on Dec 14, 2023, it was decided that 10 OLMS and one mobile laboratory were to be set up. “This will be adequate to monitor the quality of water, whether it is improving or not,” according to the minutes of the meeting.However, Delhi govt later decided to install a total of 41 OLMS, and of these, six will monitor the pollution load on the river while 35 will monitor major drains.In Delhi, the 22-km urban stretch of Yamuna from Wazirabad to Okhla is the most polluted and nearly contributes to around 75% of the total pollution. At present, the water samples are manually collected every month from eight locations: Palla, Wazirabad, ISBT Bridge, ITO Bridge, Nizamuddin Bridge, Okhla Barrage, Agra Canal at Okhla Barrage and River Yamuna at Asgarpur (after confluence of Shahdara and Okhla Barrage) for parameters like pH, chemical oxygen demand, biochemical oxygen demand, dissolved oxygen and faecal coliform. DPCC also analyses phosphate and surfactant levels, which cause froth formation in the river. Apart from Yamuna and drains, the DPCC analyses water samples from the sewage treatment plants and the common effluent treatment plants.Officials, however, clarified that the OLMS will not measure faecal coliform, which is the major indicator of raw sewage. This will be monitored manually. Officials added that the manual monitoring of the river and drains will continue regardless of the OLMS operations.
