NEW DELHI, May 12: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) told the Delhi High Court, on Monday, that unless urgent steps were taken to stop the ever increasing pollution load on the river Yamuna, Delhiites' health would be at risk and that there was also an epidemic risk to Agra.

The CPCB in its reply filed before a division bench, comprising acting chief justice Mahinder Narain, and justice S K Mahajan, blamed the discharge of ``untreated and partially treated effluent from domestic and industrial sources located in Haryana''. Distilleries were cited as the major cause of the problem.

The bench said, ``it is amazing that Haryana is responsible for so much of pollution.'' It asked the state government, the union ministries of environment and health, the Delhi government and other respondents to file their reply by May 28, the next date of hearing, to the public interest litigation filed by B L Wadhera which sought supply of clean drinking water to Delhiites.

The CPCB said, ``there is an urgent need to alleviate pollution of the Yamuna waters, otherwise the health of Delhi's residents is at risk. The pollution of the Yamuna river from domestic discharges from Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, Faridabad, Mathura and Agra has rendered the river unfit for any use.

``Until stringent measures are taken to alleviate these pollution loads, the quality of water in Agra cannot be improved and there is always a high risk of an epidemic in Agra,'' the CPCB said. On the effluence discharged into Yamuna in Haryana, the CPCB said even after the treatment of the effluence it should not be allowed to be routed into the river as it contained high organic load.

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