For 20 Years, One Family-Run Company Has Helped Keep India’s Waterbodies Clean — Across 25 States

“Earlier, there was dirt everywhere. The water smelled bad, and people avoided coming here,” says Jay Kumar Nisad, a resident, standing near the Sangam in Prayagraj, where the rivers Ganga and Yamuna meet. “Waste floated on the surface, flowers and plastic collected along the banks, and the smell stayed in the air. For those of us who live here, it became a serious problem.”

For Kumar and his community, the river is not a distant landmark but a living presence. It is woven into everyday routines, including morning baths, evening walks, prayer, livelihood, and memory. As pollution increased over the years, this relationship began to strain. What was once a place of comfort slowly became a place of discomfort. People came less often, stayed for shorter periods, and murmured about how much had changed.

Prayagraj’s experience is part of a much broader challenge facing India’s waterways. Across the country, rivers and lakes have struggled under the combined weight of rapid urbanisation, gaps in sanitation infrastructure, and the discharge of untreated waste. 
One of the most striking examples is the Yamuna, which flows through several states before joining the Ganga. Despite decades of efforts, it remains one of the most polluted stretches of river in India, particularly within the National Capital Region, where untreated sewage, industrial effluents and solid waste continue to enter the water. 

According to monthly water quality reports from the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, faecal coliform levels, an indicator of untreated sewage, soared to 92,000 units per 100 ml in December 2025, far exceeding the safe limit of 2,500 units and reflecting persistent contamination from drains and shortfalls in sewage treatment plants (STPs).

Long-term assessments show that the river’s health has steadily worsened in recent years. In January 2025, biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), a key measure of organic pollution, was recorded at about 70 mg/l, compared with the healthy standard of 3 mg/l, and faecal coliform counts in parts of the river have reached millions of units per 100 ml, underscoring the sheer scale of untreated waste entering the system.

Experts point out that this pollution does not originate in the river itself but primarily in the network of drains and sewage outfalls that discharge directly into it. For example, Delhi generates hundreds of millions of litres of sewage daily, but significant gaps remain in treatment capacity, meaning large volumes still flow untreated into drains such as the Najafgarh, the very conduit that contributes a large portion of the Yamuna’s pollution.

Many water bodies have become choked with silt, sewage, and floating waste, losing both their ecological balance and their place in community life. Addressing this problem requires steady, technical work carried out consistently over long periods of time. Few understand that better than Gaurav Chopra, who left behind a consulting career nearly two decades ago to work at the frontlines of India’s water crisis.

‘Every city had a lake or a drain that was screaming to be cleaned’

The turning point came at the waters of Dal Lake.

At the time, Gaurav was returning from the corporate world, searching for work that felt more tangible and rooted. His uncles, former master mariners from the Navy, knew water systems and navigation. When an opportunity arose to bid for the mechanised cleaning of Dal Lake, the alignment felt natural.

“We understood water, and we understood solid waste management,” he tells The Better India. “And I was at a stage where I wanted to do something more grassroots and impactful. So when the opportunity came, we decided to bid for it. That was the first contract we ran.”

Dal Lake, long celebrated for its beauty, was struggling with invasive weeds, silt build-up and floating waste. But stepping into that project revealed a sobering truth.

“The problem was not limited to one lake. Once we began working there and proposing solutions, we started looking elsewhere. Literally every city had a lake or a drain that was screaming to be cleaned,” he explains.

The early years, however, were far from straightforward. “It was a very slow journey,” he admits. “The first five to seven years were tough. It took time for authorities to understand why mechanised cleaning was necessary at all.”

At the time, water restoration efforts were often reactive, including sporadic clean-up drives or manual desilting exercises. The idea of deploying specialised machines that could operate directly inside water bodies, removing silt, weeds and debris systematically, required a shift in thinking.

“We had to stay patient. We had to pivot our model as the market evolved,” he says.

Over time, as urban flooding intensified, rivers foamed with untreated waste, and lakes vanished under encroachment and neglect, awareness began to grow. In the last five to seven years, he notes, there has been a shift in how municipalities approach water management, with greater emphasis on sustained maintenance rather than one-time interventions.

However, Gaurav remains measured in his optimism.

“The problem is pervasive. Even today, there is a lot that needs to be done,” he says.

From that first contract in Srinagar to projects spanning rivers, lakes, reservoirs and stormwater drains across India, the journey has been incremental rather than dramatic. But for Gaurav and his family, who have been working in this sector for decades, the motivation is to stand at the edge of a water body months after work begins and see visible change.

“What we do is not complicated in theory, but it requires discipline, patience, and a long-term view. We use machines because water bodies cannot be cleaned safely or effectively by hand,” he explains.

Over the last two decades, Cleantec Infra has worked in more than 25 states, completed over 90 large projects, and helped remove thousands of tonnes of waste and silt from rivers and lakes across India. Its machines have been deployed on some of the country’s most significant rivers, including the Yamuna in Delhi, the Ganga in Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, and Patna, the Sabarmati in Ahmedabad, and the Godavari in Nashik, as well as numerous lakes in cities such as Udaipur, Ajmer, and Bengaluru.

What lies beneath the foamy waters

He believes that many river-cleaning efforts fail because they address the symptom rather than the cause. “When people see foam or floating waste, they assume that it is the problem,” the managing director explains. “But that is only what is visible. The real issue often lies beneath the surface or upstream.”

To understand how his team approaches a polluted river or drain, he breaks the process down into clear and methodical steps.

Step 1: Studying the water body

Before a single machine enters the water, the team studies the site.

They assess:

• Where the waste is entering from (drains, sewage outfalls, industrial discharge)
• The depth of silt accumulated at the bottom
• The width and flow pattern of the channel
• The type of waste present — plastic, organic matter, invasive weeds, or sludge.

“Every water body is different,” the director says. “A lake behaves differently from a flowing river. A stormwater drain behaves differently from both.”

Step 2: Stopping the inflow of waste (where possible)

If a drain is continuously carrying untreated sewage into a river, as is the case with stretches feeding into the Yamuna, surface cleaning alone will not work. “You cannot clean a river if waste keeps entering it every minute,” he says.

• Where feasible, authorities are advised to:
• Divert sewage to a sewage treatment plant (STP)
• Repair broken sewer lines
• Identify illegal discharge points

While Cleantec does not build sewer systems, its cleaning plans are designed around these inflow realities.

Step 3: Removing floating waste

The most visible stage comes next.

Floating trash skimmer machines move slowly across the surface, collecting plastic bottles, flowers, thermocol, cloth, and other debris into onboard conveyors. The waste is then offloaded for proper disposal.

“This is what most people notice first. The water looks clearer almost immediately,” Gaurav says.

Step 4: Cutting and removing invasive weeds

In many lakes, thick mats of aquatic weeds block sunlight and reduce oxygen levels in the water. Specialised aquatic weed harvesters function almost like underwater lawnmowers. They cut and lift the vegetation onto the machine, which then transports it to shore.

“If you leave weeds unchecked, they multiply rapidly and choke the ecosystem,” he explains.

Step 5: Dredging the silt and sludge

This is often the most critical and least visible stage.

Over the years, rivers and lakes accumulate layers of silt mixed with organic waste and sewage sludge. This reduces depth, slows water flow and increases flooding risk.

Dredgers are deployed to remove this material from the bottom. In flowing rivers, this also helps restore natural gradients and improve oxygen circulation.

“When we remove silt, we are not just enlarging the water body,” the director says. “We are restoring its ability to breathe.”

Step 6: Reshaping and restoring flow

In drains and heavily altered rivers, channels are sometimes reshaped to improve flow velocity. Slow-moving or stagnant water tends to accumulate more waste.

Improving flow helps reduce future build-up and makes maintenance easier.

Step 7: Long-term maintenance

Perhaps the most overlooked step is what happens after the visible cleaning.

“If you clean once and leave, the problem returns,” he says.

Machines are typically operated under multi-year maintenance contracts. Tracking systems monitor how long each machine runs and how much material is removed. Regular desilting prevents years of accumulation from returning.

“It is like maintaining a road,” he adds. “You cannot repair it once in 20 years and expect it to stay perfect.”

For a layperson, the difference is that instead of sending workers into polluted water with hand tools, the process becomes systematic, safer, and continuous.

“But machines are only tools,” Gaurav says. “The real shift is thinking long term. A river is not cleaned in a day. It is maintained over the years.”

One of the largest contributors to pollution in Delhi is the Najafgarh drain, which was once the Sahibi River. Over the decades, untreated sewage, industrial waste, and silt turned it into a major channel of pollution. 

The Cleantec team worked on this drain by removing thick layers of accumulated sediment, reshaping the channel, and improving water flow. This work required machines that could operate within the water itself.

“These drains can be nearly a hundred metres wide,” he explains. “Standing on the bank with conventional equipment achieves very little.”

Before machines, people had to wade in dirty water

All of the machines are made in India, and every component is locally sourced. For Ajay Singh, work on rivers and drains used to be exhausting and dangerous.

“Before I joined Cleantec, I had worked with teams where we had no choice but to wade into the water ourselves,” he recalls. “We had no mechanised support at that time, so we used iron tools and our hands to pull out waste. There were sharp objects, broken glass, and thick layers of sludge. Cuts, bruises, injuries, it was part of every day.”

The physical risk was constant. Beyond the danger of cuts, workers were exposed to untreated sewage, chemical residues, and harmful bacteria. Cleaning a river or drain was not just tiring; it was unsafe.

Over time, mechanised equipment was introduced, changing the way work was carried out. Floating machines now skim waste off the surface, cutting through thick mats of weeds and lifting them out of the water. Dredgers remove layers of silt and sludge from the riverbed, while amphibious machines navigate shallow or clogged drains that were previously impossible to reach.

“Work that used to take ten days can now be completed in one or two,” he says. “And most importantly, we no longer have to stand in polluted water all the time. That has made a huge difference to our health and safety.”

The change is visible not just in the safety of workers, but in the environment itself. With sediment removed and weeds cleared, water flows more freely. Sunlight penetrates the surface, oxygen levels improve, and fish and birds return. Stagnant patches disappear, and harmful bacteria have less opportunity to survive.

Ajay smiles as he recalls the difference. “You can see it,” he says. “Ecosystems feel revived, with improved biodiversity and a return of aquatic and bird life. The water feels alive again. And we feel part of that change.”

Working at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj

Cleaning a river or lake once is only part of the story. Keeping it clean, especially when millions of people gather, requires long-term attention, continuous care, and constant monitoring.

This is why operation and maintenance are as important as the initial cleaning. Machines and equipment used in restoration are not only deployed and left; they must be run, maintained, and monitored so that silt does not build up again, drains do not clog, and floating waste does not return. To achieve this, each machine is fitted with tracking systems that log its operating hours and the amount of material removed. This guarantees accountability and allows the team to plan subsequent interventions efficiently.

Over the years, a team of around 350 people has been involved across India, operating and maintaining these machines. 

The importance of sustained maintenance becomes especially clear during events such as the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, one of the largest human gatherings. In January 2025, more than 66 crore devotees converged at the Triveni Sangam to take a ritual dip in the Ganga and Yamuna. Even with prior cleaning, the sheer scale of the gathering caused contamination levels in the river to spike, highlighting the need for continuous monitoring and cleaning. 

During this period, the team dredged sand to improve water flow and created safe areas for pilgrims, while machines worked continuously to remove floating waste. The tracking systems allowed supervisors to monitor work in real time, ensuring that no stretch of the river was neglected.

For the team, these efforts underscore a central lesson that cleaning a water body is not a one-off project but an ongoing process. “If the machines stop working, the water body will suffer again,” Gaurav says. “Maintaining it over the years, with the right systems and people in place, is what keeps it alive, healthy and safe for everyone who depends on it.”

Cleaner waterbodies from Bengaluru to Ajmer

For Kumar, the impact of this work is visible every day. “Earlier, the dirt stayed in the water. Now the machines remove it swifter,” he says. 

He speaks of changes that go beyond cleanliness. “Birds are coming back,” he adds with a smile. “We even see migratory species now. It is proof that the river is getting healthier.”

“Where the area used to be closed at night, it is now accessible to everyone,” he adds. “The whole atmosphere has changed, and people are coming back.”

Across other cities, similar changes are visible. In Bengaluru, lakes once covered in weeds now have clear water, children play safely along the banks, and local fishermen report more fish. In Udaipur and Ajmer, residents notice that lake water has become cleaner and more reliable for daily use. In Delhi, restored stretches of the Yamuna now support birds and small aquatic life, reversing decades of ecological decline.

Respecting local communities

Cleantec’s approach places importance on working with local communities. Local labour is hired wherever possible, and village leaders are consulted before work begins. “You cannot work in water without respecting the people who depend on it,” Gaurav says.

Ajay knows the impact of their work is felt locally. “When people witness the change, they support us,” he explains. “They let us know that our efforts make a difference.”

Despite the scale of the organisation’s work, the co-founder remains realistic. “Our water bodies were neglected for decades. Restoring them will take sustained effort,” he explains.

For Kumar, however, the change is already meaningful. “Now we come here every day,” he says softly. “The river feels clean again, like it is part of our lives once more.” In his words, the impact is not in machines or numbers, but in how people are reconnecting with the water that has always been central to their days and their community.

All pictures courtesy Cleantec Infra Pvt Ltd

Sources:
https://www.theenvironment.in/2026/01/12/water-quaity-of-yamuna-deteriorate-sharply-faecal-coliform-levels-jump-to-92000-units-in-december/

https://infra.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/water/yamuna-most-polluted-this-jan-in-5-years-dpcc-report/118545346 

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/ministry-explains-why-yamuna-remains-dirty-in-delhi-despite-huge-spending-9733163 

https://www.millenniumpost.in/nation/prayagraj-15-day-special-cleanliness-drive-begins-at-maha-kumbh-mela-grounds-600602 

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thebetterindia.com