Yamuna water level better, but situation far from ideal yet, says DJB

NEW DELHI: Delhi Jal Board vicechairman Dinesh Mohaniya on Saturday said that Haryana has improved the supply of Yamuna water to the Capital but the quantity was still not satisfactory.

“There has been some improvement. Water is coming to the Wazirabad pond. Earlier, the water level at Wazirabad was 669.4ft against the normal of 674.5ft. Now it has improved to 671.2ft, but there is still some deficit. We are hoping for more improvement in the coming days,” Mohaniya said.

Last week, the Supreme Court was informed that chief secretary-level talks between the two states had taken place to resolve the dispute over sharing of Yamuna water.

“Data is being collected on a daily basis. On the next day of hearing at the Supreme Court, on April 16 we will present this data,” Mohaniya said.

According to a DJB official, it is taking time for the water to reach Delhi through the river. “Haryana has been releasing water but first it took time to saturate the river. Initially, the river was all dry and the water was being soaked by the riverbed,” he said.

Delhi gets 1,133 cusecs of water from Haryana. Of this 683 cusecs per day comes through the Munak canal, 330 cusecs per day through the Delhi sub-branch canal, while the remaining through the Yamuna river.

Since January 30, the water board has been facing problems in treating water as three of its plants at Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Haidarpur have not been running at full capacity due to high levels of ammonia in the Yamuna and due to lesser quantity of water coming from Haryana. Of the 900 MGD of water distributed in Delhi, nearly 60% comes from Haryana through the Yamuna. The areas affected by the water crisis are west, north, central Delhi and parts of south Delhi, including the Delhi Cantonment and NDMC areas. Residents have been advised to store sufficient water in advance as per their requirement.

SINCE JANUARY 30, THE WATER BOARD HAS BEEN FACING PROBLEMS AS THREE OF ITS

PLANTS HAVE NOT

BEEN RUNNING AT

FULL CAPACITY