Excerpt:

New Delhi: On August 7, 1977, fish flew out of the river. That day, the day of the flood, the river began dying.

The Sahibi river, which as per an 1807 map of the Environs of Delhi was once connected to the Yamuna, is now ‘regulated’. It has become the 51-km Najafgarh drain that flows through nearly the entire breadth of the capital, carrying not just Delhi’s refuse but also its refusal to care about its water.

… A CGWB [Central Ground Water Board] booklet on the South West District of Delhi in 2011 had listed the “high fluoride content at Najafgarh” under the “major groundwater problems and issues”. Fluoride in water can cause calcification of ligaments, pain in the joints and even “severe skeletal problems” warns the WHO. …