New Delhi , April 3: Following the Copenhagen conference on climate change, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has become extremely proactive on environmental issues. It was because of his personal intervention that urban development minister Jaipal Reddy gave his formal approval to the issuing of a notification banning all further construction on the Yamuna flood plain.

The ministry of urban development gave its approval to the “O Zone” plan on March 8, bringing to a halt all speculation about the building of stadiums, cultural centres and commercial buildings on the river’s flood plains. This will also halt the proposal to build concrete embankments along the banks of the Yamuna.
The PM was approached last year by the NGO Natural Heritage First (NGF) asking for his intervention to save the sandy aquifers of the Yamuna. In a letter to Dr Singh in 2009, its members had highlighted that “the Yamuna river flood plain sand aquifer in Delhi is about 100 sq km in area and on average 40 meters deep, and can provide water to six million people”. Putting a cost to this water, the members highlighted that it would yield an annual (water) harvest of Rs 7,000 crores. 
Vikram Soni, professor of physics at the Centre for Theoretical Physics, Jamia Millia University and member of NGF, also stressed to the Prime Minister the flawed nature of the notification to preserve ground water reserves issued by the Central Ground Water Authority.
It was pointed out to the PM that while the notification prohibits “the extraction of water and building of tubewells in notified areas, it does not stop construction on the same area, thereby destroying the recharge capacity of the ground water reserves”.
A series of 15 brainstorming meetings were held in the PMO resulting in the ministry of urban affairs giving its  formal approval. A notification to this effect will be issued declaring this an “O Zone” by the DDA later this month.
Prof. Soni said, “Our long standing demand to notify the moratorium has finally being met... This notification will now open the doors for water activists across the country to help notify 750 water bodies in order to stop permanent construction on them.”
“Rivers and wetlands across the country are drying up and already we are facing huge water shortages. The earlier notifications were so loosely drafted that the real estate lobby continued their construction work on this vital water recharge zone across the country,” water activist Rajinder Singh pointed out.
Ms Gursharan Kaur, the Prime Minister’s wife, also took a keen initiative to ensure that a moratorium on construction be placed. She is also keenly involved in having the Yamuna river cleaned up.
 
Rashme Sehgal