New Delhi Urban Ecologies

New Delhi Urban Ecologies encompasses phases of the project from 2013-2018 and 2021-2023, primarily based at the University of Virginia, during which research was focused on the relationship between Delhi’s urbanization and the Yamuna River. Sites of inquiry spanned throughout the Delhi National Capital Territory (NCT) — from the center where the seat of power lives, to its northern and northwestern edges where the Yamuna first enters the city, to its south-eastern edges where the her now toxic waters flow out of the city. A significant portion of the work from this phase was published in Yamuna River Project: New Delhi Urban Ecology by Iñaki Alday and Pankaj Vir Gupta in 2018.

Originating in the Himalayas, and emerging from the Yamunotri Glacier, the Yamuna River negotiates dams and barrages, irrigating thousands of acres of agricultural land, before it flows into New Delhi. North of Delhi, the volume of fresh water in the Yamuna is able to dilute organic matter and fertilizers, absorbing pollution from pesticides and agricultural runoff, while maintaining a level of dissolved oxygen capable of supporting aquatic life, birds, and vegetation. However, the river receives an unholy welcome upon her arrival in Delhi.

At the Wazirabad Barrage, all of the Yamuna’s water is dammed and diverted, partially quenching the capital city’s insatiable thirst. Just after this Barrage, the Najafgarh Drain – formerly the perennial Sahibi River – provides the only flow to the Yamuna, bringing with it, sixty percent of the river’s total pollution load. Comprising of untreated sewerage, solid waste, industrial and chemical effluent, and urban detritus, the flow of the Najafgarh Drain depletes the water of all oxygen content, rendering it incapable of supporting any form of life.

The quality of the water is not in fact the problem. Billions of dollars have been invested in large water-based infrastructure projects, without achieving any substantial success in cleaning the river. Polluted water is the consequence and an indicator of 150 years of urban evolution, an empirical measure of the last fifty years of rapid, largely unplanned growth, and, in summary, of severe social and environmental inequality in the city. As Rana Dasgupta points out in his essay, British rule changed the historic relation between Delhi’s population and the water, transforming both a sacred and a secular interface, into a commodity of uncertain origin. From inhabiting the many ‘ghats’ that lined the river, and offering an unobstructed experience of civic and religious life amidst the Yamuna River, Delhi’s population grew detached from the river, receiving a poorly regulated, often contaminated, and, at best, intermittent supply of precious water, through an intricate maze of pipes and meters. A water mafia sprung into action, quickly monetizing an opportunity to drill illegal wells, pump unregulated water, and supply tankers to a parched populace.

Delhi’s citizens are now completely detached from their river, only part of a larger detachment from the formerly shared consciousness of public space, and, in fact, from the concept of a ‘commons’. This detachment is the underlying cause of Delhi’s environmental dilemma. The Yamuna River, perceived as an incarnate Goddess, is incapable of supporting physical life.

Project Teams