Water supply back to normal, says DJB after Chamoli impact
Water supply in parts of south, east and northeast Delhi remained partially affected on Monday as silt and debris from the flash floods in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district increased turbidity in the Ganga river forcing Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to operate at reduced capacity.
The body’s vice-chairperson Raghav Chadha, however, said the water utility has overcome the issue and supply will be normal by Tuesday.
Turbidity is the measure of relative clarity of a liquid. It is measured in NTU. High turbidity can be caused by debris, silt, mud, algae, plant pieces, melting glaciers, sawdust, wood ashes or chemicals in the water.
Chadha visited DJB’S Bhagirathi Water Treatment Plant (WTP) to take stock of the situation. “We treat the raw Ganga water which comes from the Upper Ganga Canal at Muradnagar and provide it to Delhi households. But, due to the calamity in Uttarakhand, the quality of water has worsened. The water which we are getting now is of very poor quality as it has a lot of dirt and other particles. Water quality is measured in nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) which touched 8,000,
NEW DELHI:
llThe water which Delhi receives saw a sharp spike in the levels of dirt, due to the glacier breach at Uttarakhand.
As a result, the water's turbidity, an indicator of the clarity of a liquid, was in some areas 80 or 90 times above the permissible limit. while the permissible limit is 100,” said Chadha.
Chadha said the DJB shut down the Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi
WTPS. The production capacity of these plants was brought down to combat the situation, he said. These plants together provide around 250 MGD water per day.
“Due to high level of dirt in the raw water, supply was affected in areas of south, east and northeast Delhi. In Bhagirathi treatment plant, water NTU has been reduced from 8000 to 960 and in Sonia Vihar it has been brought down from 8200 NTU to 1000,” said Chadha.
Residents in several areas complained nil or irregular supply on Monday. These include Greater Kailash-2, Defence Colony, Vigyan Vihar, South Extension-2, Kailash Colony, Jamia Nagar, Panchsheel Enclave, Krishna Nagar, Jafrabad, Seelampur among others.
The DJB in a statement said the Bhagirathi water treatment plant (WTP) is now working at 100% and Sonia Vihar at 80% capacity. In many areas, residents had to buy water cans or rely on tankers to meet the water shortage. RWAS also issued instructions to residents to judiciously use water for a few days.
Sanjay Rana, president, Greater Kailash-2 RWA, said there was no prior intimation about the disruption of water supply hence people could not fill their tanks or store water.
“There had been no supply of water since Sunday evening. The authorities told us about the water crisis only on Sunday evening, saying that there will be no supply in the evening and next (Monday) morning as well. This led to water shortage in almost every household in the area. People had to buy 20-litre water cans for their daily chores,” Rana said.
He added that the DJB officials have assured them that the supply would become normal by Tuesday.
Ranjeet Singh, president, Defence Colony RWA, said there was no water supply in the area. “Water supply was impacted in the colony since Sunday evening, and there was no supply today. No one got the opportunity to fill their tanks or store extra water as there was no prior intimation,” Singh said.
Several areas in east Delhi were also due to the break in supply.
BS Vohra, president of a joint forum of east Delhi RWAS said in some areas such as Vigyan Vihar, Preet Vihar among others there was no water supply on Monday. In other areas, bad quality water was supplied for a short duration.
On the allegations that there was no prior information, a DJB spokesperson said, “The information was shared through social media handles. It was tweeted during the day on Sunday by the vice chairperson and most MLAS also sent out messages to RWA groups.”