New Delhi, Apr 22 : School children today participated with zeal in a painting competition organised by the youth of Justice Group to save the dying Yamuna river to mark the Earth Day.

"To make our students more aware and develop environment consciousness in them, we have brought them here today. These people have also organised a drawing competition. We took them over there to the Yamuna site where construction work is going on. I hope that all of us get together and save our planet earth," said Nidhi Rana, a teacher.

The students also took part in the awareness-cum-education program.

In recent years, the river has turned grossly polluted due to various factors responsible for affecting human health and bio-diversity of the eco-system.

It is considered as one of the most polluted rivers in the world, especially around New Delhi which is believed to dump about 57 per cent of its waste into the river.

One such cause of pollution in the River Yamuna has been the regular discharge of unchecked domestic wastewater and other forms of wastes coming from the towns, located along the Yamuna riverbanks.

Certain measures of cleaning the river have been undertaken by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) under the Centre in 12 towns of Haryana, eight towns of Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi under an action plan (Yamuna Action Plan-YAP) to arrest river pollution.

Since 1993, the action plan is being implemented by the National River Conservation Directorate (NRCD) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Although the Government of India has spent nearly 500 million dollars to clean up the river, it continues to be polluted with garbage while most sewage treatment facilities are underfunded or malfunctioning. (ANI)