Water woes may end today as Haryana releases water

The Capital’s water worries are likely to end on Thursday as Haryana has started releasing Delhi’s share of Yamuna water.

“Haryana has started releasing water. Production likely to be normal by tomorrow (Thursday) morning and distribution by tomorrow evening. We are constantly monitoring the situation,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Wednesday.

Out of the total 900 million gallons per day (MGD) of water distributed in Delhi, 543 MGD (almost 60%) comes from Haryana and around 240 MGD from Uttar Pradesh through the Upper Ganga Canal.

The release of water to Delhi through the Yamuna had been decreased by Haryana since May 8, 2017. The city was getting 80 MGD water, less than what it gets. Haryana is bound to send Delhi’s share of water as specified by a 1996 Supreme Court order. Still, every summer Delhi faces shortage of water and enters into a tussle with Haryana.

According to the Delhi Jal Board, both Wazirabad and Chandrawal water treatment plants, which were hit by the shortage, will be running to full capacity by Thursday.

“Chandrawal has a treatment capacity of 90MGD while at Wazirabad, it is 120MGD. Both these plants ran at 60% capacity

on Wednesday. The Wazirabad pond, which sends water for treatment to these two plants, should be restored by 4am on Thursday and water treatment will stabilise after that,” DJB chairman Keshav Chandra said.

Chandra said distribution will be normalised by Friday morning after all the underground reservoirs and water lines are filled.

On Wednesday, however, many areas across North Delhi were with little water.

In many parched localities, people struggled with limited amount while others complained

of dirty water. DJB tankers and tubewells are saving the day for most. At Kabir Basti in Malkaganj, 10-year-old Roshni stood in a queue and waited for her turn in front of a DJB water tanker. “I am helping my mother. There hasn’t been much water in the last two days,” Roshni said, before leaving for home with two large bottles.

In the next bylane, Rakesh Sonkar said this supply disruption has started for the past 3-4 days. At Clock Tower, Sabji Mandi, residents complained of an old water line, which is supplying “dirty” water.