Water levels dip amid ongoing supply crisis
NEW DELHI: The water level at the Wazirabad barrage fell to 668 feet on Sunday, 6.5 feet lower than the average normal of 674.5 feet for this time of the year, amid a shortage of water in the Yamuna said officials from the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
The water treatment plants at Wazirabad were producing 922 MGD (million gallon per day) of water against the targeted peak summer production of 998 MGD.
The city requires an estimated 1,380 MGD of water, which has been derived from the norm of 60 gallons per capita per day (GPCD) for an estimated population of 23 million in Delhi. In the last 10 days, DJB has issued four advisories to residents to store sufficient quantities of water in the wake of falling water levels at the Yamuna.
While Delhi has blamed its neighbour Haryana for the water crisis, the latter has consistently maintained that it is releasing the legally mandated share of water for the Capital and no additional quantum of water can be released.
A senior DJB official said authorities are trying to divert water from Carrier Lined Canal (Munak) towards Wazirabad to keep up the water production in Wazirabad and Chandrawal.
“There is maximum possible diversion from CLC towards Wazirabad and fluctuations are being observed in the flow towards Delhi sub-branch canal. Munak canal is also facing the issue of excessive floating materials at the intake point in Haiderpur plant. All these factors have affected operations at Haiderpur Phase-1, Phase-2 and Bawana water treatment plant. We are reviewing the situation constantly and trying to rationalize the water supply from various plants, as a result of which water is available at low pressure in various parts of Delhi,” said the officia.
According to DJB, the most affected areas are north, northwest , west Delhi and a few parts in south Delhi. Water minister Satyendar Jain visited the Wazirabad barrage on Saturday night to inspect the raw water discharge.
Residents from various parts of city reported issues with water supply on Sunday.
Anjali Sorout, a resident of Janakpuri, said supply in C Block was severely affected. “There is no clean water supply through submersibles either. The ground water is also dirty,” she said.
Vinod Kumar, a resident of west Delhi’s Vishnu Garden said there has been no water supply in his block over the last three days. “What kind of service is this? What should we do in this hot summer without water?” he asked.
On Friday, Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar stated that Haryana’s responsibility is to supply 1,049 cusecs to Delhi from Munak and will keep on supplying it even though the state is falling short of water. “The AAP government in Punjab should also ensure that Haryana gets its share of 3.5 million acre feet of Ravi-beas water by constructing the Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal,” said Khattar.
To this, the Delhi government said the Capital faces a water crisis because of Haryana’ refusal to provide Delhi its fair share of water.