India, March 7 -- New Delhi

Over half or 19 of Delhi's 37 sewage treatment plants (STPs) are failing to meet the treatment standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), thereby posing a key challenge to the Yamuna clean-up due to the release of effluents with alarming levels of faecal coliform, experts and stakeholders said, citing the latest data shared by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC).

The faecal coliform level in some cases is ten times more than the prescribed limits at the Ghitorni STP, while several units of the Okhla plant were closed, according to a DPCC report dated January 30. Activists have recently flagged that sludge was observed in Yamuna near the Kalindi Kunj barrage.

To be sure, as many as ...