Delhi is facing a severe water crisis as the supply from Haryana has significantly dwindled, resulting in a reduction of water production by 70 million gallons per day (MGD). On Saturday, Delhi Water Minister Ms. Atishi revealed that the city’s water production has dropped to 932 MGD due to insufficient inflow from Haryana. The water level at the Wazirabad Barrage has plunged by six feet to 668.5 feet, and the water received from Munak Canal has decreased to 902 cusecs. In response to the emergency, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has connected borewells in West Delhi to underground reservoirs and increased the number of tanker trips to 10,000 daily.
In this regard, on Saturday, the Delhi Water Minister had called an emergency meeting of DJB officers and directed to increase the number of tankers in the city as per the need. Along with this, Minister Atishi also had a phone conversation with Himachal CM Shri Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and got an assurance of help from the Himachal government.
Water Minister Ms. Atishi said that during this severe heatwave in Delhi, the temperature in Delhi is reaching 46-47 degrees Celsius and there is a water crisis in Delhi. Even now, water is not reaching Delhi in sufficient quantity. The water level at Wazirabad Barrage should be 674.5 feet but it is only 668.5 feet right now. That is, the water at Wazirabad Barrage has almost finished, and no water is coming at all. On the other hand, Delhi is also not getting enough water from the Munak Canal. On June 10, Delhi received 925 cusecs of water from Munak Canal, which decreased to 919 cusecs on June 11, decreased to 903 on June 12, reached 906 on 13 June, and decreased to 902 cusecs on June 15.
The Delhi Water Minister continued, stating, “Due to the decrease in the amount of water Delhi is getting from both sources, Wazirabad Barrage and Munak Canal, the water production in Delhi’s water treatment plants is decreasing. Normally, these water treatment plants produce 1,005 MGD of water daily, but due to the shortage of raw water, this figure has been continuously decreasing for the last week. On June 6, it was 1,002 MGD, which fell to 958 MGD on June 10, it was 939 MGD on June 13th, and yesterday it fell to 932 MGD. That is, Delhi has produced 70 MGD less water than normal.”
“The water of Munak Canal goes to 7 water treatment plants, but due to the shortage of water, the production of these water treatment plants has been affected. And due to the less production of 70 MGD water, the shortage of water in many areas of Delhi persists,” She added.
Minister Atishi further added that in this situation, emergency tube wells have been installed and connected to the supply network. These tubewells have been installed especially in many parts of West Delhi including Bawana, Narela, Dwarka, and Nangloi, where there was a lot of water shortage. Given the emergency, borewells have been connected to the local UGR. Along with this, the trips of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) tankers have also been increased. Now 10,000 trips of tankers are being done by the DJB in a day. And the DJB is supplying about 10 MGD of water through tankers.
The Water Minister shared that an emergency meeting was also called today on the issue of the water crisis. In this, the Delhi Jal Board was instructed to make a new assessment and on that basis, the number of tankers should be increased and water should be delivered through tankers to the places where water is not reaching. The fixed points for sending water tankers should also be increased because until Delhi gets water in sufficient quantity and water production increases, water can be delivered to those areas only through tankers.
“Yesterday, a meeting of the Upper Yamuna River Board was held to improve this situation but it did not yield any result. Himachal has reiterated in this meeting that it is ready to give its surplus 137 MGD water to Delhi. All the Upper Yamuna States whether it’s Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, or Delhi, all these states have been allocated a share of Yamuna water. But the board has asked for some documents and calculations from Himachal Pradesh on this,” She mentioned.
Minister Atishi shared that she had a phone conversation with Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh ‘Sukhu’ on Saturday morning. In this conversation, the Chief Minister of Himachal has assured that Himachal is ready to provide whatever information the Upper Yamuna River Board needs from Himachal as soon as possible. He said that Himachal Pradesh has extended a helping hand to Delhi. It may take some time for the Upper Yamuna River Board to make a decision.
She stated, “In such a situation, we (Delhi) have requested Haryana on humanitarian grounds to give some additional water to Delhi. The Upper Yamuna River Board has advised Delhi and Haryana to hold a bilateral meeting and consider whether Haryana can give some extra water to Delhi. Also, Delhi government officials have talked to Haryana government officials. And a delegation of senior Delhi government officials will go to Chandigarh tomorrow and meet Haryana officials. We appeal to the Haryana government on humanitarian grounds that, considering the current situation in Delhi, the Haryana government should give some extra water to Delhi.”
“We can talk about the shares of Yamuna water after the severe heat waves but at present due to heat waves an emergency has arisen and we appeal to Haryana to release water on humanitarian grounds,” stated the Delhi Water Minister.
Minister Atishi appealed to the people of Delhi and said that there is a constant shortage of water in the city. In such a situation, people should use water carefully and save water. If the areas of Delhi which do not have water shortage, use water carefully and save water, then it will provide water to those areas of Delhi where there is water shortage.
Minister Atishi conveyed that the inspection of water pipelines is going on by the teams of DJB and the Revenue Department. Information is also being received from social media in this regard. Sharing this, she mentioned that, yesterday through social media, news of pipeline leakage was received from a place in Kondli. That pipeline leakage has been fixed within 12 hours. “In this water crisis, we cannot waste even a drop of water. In such a situation, I appeal to the people of Delhi that, if they get news of water leakage anywhere, then inform Delhi Jal Board on ‘X’ ( erstwhile Twitter), we will immediately take cognizance of it,” she concluded.
