No covering up this mess

The recent attempts to so-called development in the territory of Delhi, India's national capital, by cementing the channels of drains/nallahs and covering them up, will seem as a bad choice when we'll look at its consequences in future. The author discusses its consequences and other viable options in the article. True it is, that the nallahs have given a hard time to the residents nearby, but covering and concretising them is not an eco-friendly option. The various problems it'll cause will be- Debris and solid waste will be difficult to remove, groundwater will not be replenished, gases will become more toxic and smellier due to lack of oxygen and wildlife residing in the shrubs and trees on nallah banks will lose their habitat.

Most of the present-day nallahs were once clean lakes and rivers which provided for drinking water, irrigated the crops and absorbed overflow of rainwater. Due to ever expanding cities serving somewhat unlimited population for which even land seems to be scarce, these rivers are now an end to drains making them noxious nallahs. 

It is not that the municipal plans have overlooked the issue, but that they have always been inefficient. After the Independence, the plan was always to keep these nallahs as beautiful lakes and rivers but the inefficiency in handling the sewage of such a large population caused these 'nallahs to become nallahs'. A recent audit tells that the Delhi Jal Board only treats 54% of the total sewage produced each day. Though several water treatment plants with good treating capacity have been installed in various areas, they work to their minimal efficiency, plant near Ghitorni and Rohini being the worst.

The most astonishing part is that, while we are concretising are cities and nallahs, rest of the world has woken up and realised its mistake of covering and cementising sewages. London, Seoul and Philadelphia have recently uncovered their lost rivers cum nallahs and turned them into sources of entertainment and examples of natural urban green channels. Though its always the time to act on the issue, its time we stop the wrong act.