9 years after Arvind Kejriwal promised to clean Yamuna, the holy river once again full of toxic foam in Delhi

Soon after coming to power, Arvind Kejriwal in 2015 had promised to clean Yamuna within five years, but there is no improvement in the water quality of the river after 9 years

Year after year, former Chief Minister of Delhi and Aam Aadmi Party’s national convener, Arvind Kejriwal, has promised to clean the Yamuna River. It has been on AAP’s agenda since day one. However, the AAP-led Delhi government has failed miserably in fulfilling this promise. Once again, the Yamuna is full of toxic foam weeks before the annual Chhath Puja, and no one from the ruling party has any answers on the matter.

The failure of the AAP govt to clean the Yamuna River has been consistent since the party came into power in Delhi over ten years ago for the first time. Notably, soon after coming to power, Arvind Kejriwal in 2015 had promised to clean Yamuna. “We will revive Yamuna within five years,” Kejriwal had said in November 2015 while performing Aarti at the river.

National spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Shehzad Poonawala, visited the Yamuna River on Saturday, 19th October, to assess the situation.

Speaking to ANI from the Yamuna River, he said, “The water of the Yamuna River has become poisonous. Arvind Kejriwal had said that he would clean the Yamuna River by 2025. When people celebrate the Chhath Puja festival in the Yamuna River, can you imagine the diseases they will suffer from? The AAP-led Delhi government has spent all the money meant for cleaning the Yamuna River on advertisements. They will blame Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for this condition. Poisonous politics is the reason for poisonous air and water in Delhi.”

He shared a video by Delhi Ka Darshan, where visuals of toxic foam were shown alongside the promises made by Kejriwal over the years. In 2015, Kejriwal said that his government would make the Yamuna so clean in five years that the people of Delhi would go to the river for picnics.

In 2021, Kejriwal had said that cleaning the Yamuna was his responsibility. He added, “I asked for five years from the people of Delhi during elections and promised them that I would take a dip in the Yamuna in the next elections.” Assembly elections for Delhi are scheduled for the first quarter of 2025, which means Delhi’s former CM has only five months to take a dip in the Yamuna.

Shehzad visited the Yamuna River and took a sample in a water bottle. He said, “This is water from the Yamuna River. The BOD level of the water should be 5 mg per litre, but the Yamuna’s water is 93 mg per litre. This is no longer water. Kejriwal has turned it into poison. The 22 km stretch from Wazirabad to Okhla, which is only 1-2% of the total length of the river, is responsible for 80% of the pollution in the river. Atishi Marlena and their senior leaders claim UP and the people of UP are responsible for the pollution in the river. However, the river flows from Haryana to Delhi to UP.”

History of false claims and promises by Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leaders

In September 2021, then Delhi’s Water Minister, Satyendra Jain, claimed that the AAP government was planning to treat around 155 million gallons per day (MGD) of wastewater coming from Haryana and Uttar Pradesh into the Yamuna. The minister had also claimed in 2020 that the Delhi government was determined to revive the river within the next three to four years. He was not the only one to make false claims.

Kejriwal has been the biggest culprit in AAP for making false promises to clean the Yamuna River over the years. In 2015, he promised to clean the Yamuna River within five years (by 2020). He made this promise while standing on the banks of the river, along with his cabinet colleagues and senior Delhi government officials, who took part in the first ‘Yamuna Aarti’ held at Kudesia Ghat. The aarti was conducted in a very dharmic style, with priests from Varanasi specially invited for the programme, chanting Vedic hymns.

In 2021, surreal scenes appeared on social media when a Jal Board employee was seen sprinkling water in the Yamuna to “get rid of the toxic foam.” Delhi Jal Board employee Ashok Kumar informed news agency ANI that they would sprinkle water on the surface of the Yamuna from the banks of the river to get rid of the foam by evening. This was part of the preparation to eliminate the toxic foam before Chhath Puja, during which devotees take a dip in the river while praying to the Sun.

In November 2021, Kejriwal announced 6-point action plan to completely change the face of Yamuna. But, nothing happened. As he had promised to clean Yamuna by February 2025, he has less than five months to do it.

So here we are, once again, standing by the foaming banks of the Yamuna, witnessing another grand promise evaporate into thin air, just like the toxic fumes from its polluted waters. Arvind Kejriwal and his AAP brigade have truly mastered the art of announcing dates and “6-point plans” that conveniently go nowhere. Perhaps the next Chhath Puja will witness not just devotees, but the man himself, taking that long-promised dip—if not in the clean river he vowed, then certainly in the murky depths of political rhetoric. After all, why break a tradition of false promises now?