Delhi’s water crisis worsens (The Hindu 17 June 2012)

The Hindu People seen fills water containers from a tanker of Delhi Jal Board at Burari , as the capital experienced unprecedented water crisis, in Delhi on June 16, 2012.Photo:Sushil Kumar Verma

There was no let-up in the water crisis in the Capital on Saturday as the production dipped by 55 million gallons a day. Officials of the city’s water supplier, the Delhi Jal Board, said the pond levels at both Wazirabad and Haiderpur have fallen by over a feet and remained below the stipulated level of 674.5 feet as Haryana continued to withhold a part of Delhi’s water share.

A senior official from the Haryana administration even undertook an inspection of the Haiderpur pond and water treatment plant on Saturday to verify Delhi’s claims. “Apart from the data that we have, we even got an employee to stand in the canal to nail Haryana’s lie that the water level is at 7 feet. The water barely came up to about 4 feet. Even after proving that Delhi is getting just 350-370 cusec of water as against the required 425 cusec. If Haryana still thinks that Delhi is exaggerating the problem, then we don’t know how else to prove our claims,” said a senior DJB official.

“Since there is no release from Haryana, and no change in the pond levels, we are lifting less water for production. The production at Haiderpur has reduced by 15 MGD and at Wazirabad by 40 MGD. We have also had to scale down production at Chandrawal water treatment plant,” said the official.

To meet water demand in areas on the command of the two water treatment plants, the DJB has begun carrying out rotational supply. It means it will cut off supply for one time to areas that have been getting an uninterrupted supply and instead supply this water to areas that are in the grip of a crisis.

Countering Haryana’s claims that Delhi has increased the production at the Wazirabad and Haiderpur water treatment plants and therefore demanding more water from Haryana, the official said: “There is no change in the water production; the capacity has been the same. If there is any change in the output on account of technological interventions from our side, we are not lifting extra water for the plants. To augment the city’s water supply, we have refurbished our WTPs to ensure that the wastage during treatment is reduced and have set up waste water recycling plants to add to the city’s water supply.”

“We need at least 900 cusec of water to meet the city’s demand; we are entitled to 750 cusec from the Yamuna including the 130 cusec that is lost in transit from Tajewala to Haiderpur, and 371 cusec is our share from the Bhakra Beas Management Board, but we are not even getting close to the total sum of that,” the official added.