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11. (I) Water Treatment: While dealing with the public health aspects of the sewage system, Vol. 16 of the Encyclopedia Britannica, 15th Edition, page 582, has this to say :

Public health aspects. Not surprisingly, the crude sanitary arrangements of Europe contributed to the spread of epidemics. John Snow, a 19th-century English physician, compiled a list of outbreaks of cholera that he believed had moved westward from India over a period of centuries, reaching London and Paris in 1849. Snow traced a London recurrence of 1854 to a public well, known as the Broad Street Pump, in Golden Square, which he determined was being contaminated by nearby privy vaults. This was a note worthy epidemiological achievement, especially since it predated by several years the discovery of the role of bacteria in disease transmission.
(I have included the above subject matter in the judgment to ensure that persons concerned have requisite information about water treatment methods, and by referring to the encyclopedia, get in depth knowledge, by perusing the books in the bibliographic note).
II. Channelisation : Regarding river canalisation, this is what is stated in the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia :
River Canalisation. Formerly, when important rivers were found to be unnavilgable at certain points, shallow side canals running parallel to the river were built with pick and shovel so that vessels could bypass that part of the river and re-enter it at a more suitable point. With the advent of power machinery, this practice has been largely discarded in favour of canalisation of the river itself; that is, a river may be dredged at unnavilgable points and provided with dams and bypass locks that control the level of the river from end to end. Construction of 40 locks and dams on the Ohio River was completed in 1929; redevelopment, begun in 1955 to replace the current system with 18 high-lift locks, was completed in 1981. Canalisation of the upper Mississippi River from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Alton, Illinois (just above Saint Louis, Missouri), was completed in 1939-40. In May 1954 the U.S. Congress authorised the federal Government to join with Canada in the construction of the St. Lawrence Seaway; as its share of the project, the U.S. built two canals, three locks, and various other improvements along the St. Lawrence River from Montreal, Que., to Ogdensburg, New York. Canalisation of the Arkansas River which includes 13 locks and dams and a 14-km (9-mi) canal linking the Arkansas to the White and Mississippi rivers, opened the river to navigation to Catoosa, Oklahoma, in 1970. The Tennessee-Tomblike Waterway, a 407-km-long (253-mi-long) project that was completed in 1984, includes five dams, ten locks, and a 72-km-ling (45-mi-long) canal linking the two rivers in Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee.

33. Under the head "Recreation" are mentioned development of lakes and river front developments, which is also supposed to have been achieved in five years from coming into force of the Plan. Neither of these things have happened in five years period, postulated by the Master Plan Perspective 2001.

34. None of the above said information which is extracted from Encyclopedia Britannica, or Microsoft Encarta, has been given to us by any of the parties before us. It has been collected it from the said reference works. The matters being in the domain of public knowledge, one can take cognizance of the same.

58. I apprehend that until and unless the quality of the water in the river Yamuna is improved either by increasing the supply of unpolluted water into the river, or by having adequate water treatment plants at the end of each of the 17 drains, before they discharge water into river Yamuna, to make it fit for human consumption, the water of river can only ensure spread of disease and death through out the length and breadth of the city, on such waters being used by the citizens of Delhi for any purpose, whatsoever, be that for the purposes of bathing, offering religious oblations, or any water sport and recreation. (Refer back to what is stated in Encyclopedia Britannica about the HepatIT is epidemic being caused in Delhi because of water pollution - hereabove). These observations are made because of the contents of the Master Plan for Delhi, which have been pointed out to us by Ms. Geeta Luthra, learned Counsel for the respondent and re-emphasised by Mr. Sahai, Senior Advocate on behalf of the Delhi Development Authority.