Haryana asked to remove bunds blocking water into Yamuna

: The Delhi high court has asked Haryana to remove the bunds that according to the Delhi government, were blocking the flow of clean water into the Yamuna and was leading to an increase in pollution levels in the national capital’s water supply.

The direction by a bench of chief justice Rajendra Menon and justice VK Rao came after the Haryana government stated in an affidavit that it will remove the bunds.

In its affidavit, the Manohar Lal Khattar government has said the bunds were put up in DD-8 canal to ensure that pollution from it does not flow into the Yamuna. It also denied the Delhi government’s allegations in its recent application, that due to the bunds the water supply of the national capital was getting more polluted.

Haryana in its reply to the application has said that of the 1,000 million gallons per day (MGD) water requirement of the national capital, 500 MGD good quality raw water is supplied by it through canals and 440 MGD is sourced from the Ganga and tubewells.

Only the remaining 60 MGD water which is sourced directly from the Yamuna would contain high levels of ammonia, it has said and added that Delhi was the largest contributor to pollution in the Yamuna.

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB), represented by senior advocate Dayan Krishnan and advocate Sumeet Pushkarna, told the bench that they need to go through the affidavit and sought time to respond to it.

The court, thereafter, gave the DJB time till March 13 to respond to the claims made by Haryana in its affidavit.

Haryana, in its affidavit filed by the principal secretary of its water department, has claimed that the raw water supply from it to Delhi never gets affected or reduced even in the lean season.

It has also said that Delhi should take urgent steps to reduce its losses which are alleged to be 10% during treatment and 30% after that, as residents of Haryana suffer from dearth of water to ensure the national capital does not.

Haryana has contended that some losses during treatment are inevitable, “but losses to the extent as projected by DJB are unpardonable and can even be termed as criminal wastage of precious raw water.”

It further said “any deficiency in water supply to the citizens of Delhi is because of mismanagement.”

NEW DELHI