“When the well is dry, we know the worth of water,” wrote
Benjamin Franklin, one of the founding fathers of the United States in Poor
Richard's Almanac. But here in Delhi, where lakhs of wells have dried up, water
table has dropped to as low as 550 feet in many areas and lakhs of people are
going without adequate drinking water supply, as much as 34 to 60 crore litres
of clean raw water are being dumped every day into the dirty Najafgarh drain in
the name of recharging the Yamuna river system.
Moreover, while this dumping of raw water in the drain has been
going on for several years, neither Delhi nor the Haryana Government has tried
to use this water for their citizens' drinking needs.
According to Anand Kumar, Chief Engineer of Yamuna Water Services
Unit (South), Haryana Irrigation Department, “this release into the Yamuna
through the Najafgarh drain is a part of the Supreme Court's direction
regarding maintenance of minimum flow in the river Yamuna for which purpose 10
cumecs of water have to be released into the Yamuna for maintenance of the
eco-system and for flushing out impurities.''
In compliance of this order, he insists: “Of this, 160 cusecs are
released from Tajewala and 140 cusecs are released from the Delhi Sub-Branch
into the Najafgarh drain.''
Pinky Anand, senior advocate and amicus curiae in Writ Petition
No. 537 of 1992 – Commander Sureshwar D. Sinha and others versus Union of India
and others -- insists that the “Supreme Court never directed the authorities to
dump clean raw water in a filthy highly polluted drain.''
“The Supreme Court, vide order dated February 29, 1996 directed
the Haryana to ensure that there is enough water supply to keep ponds at the
Haiderpur and Wazirabad treatment plants full to fulfil Delhi's water
requirements since Delhi's requirement was only about three per cent of
Haryana's total water availability,'' she said.
Then, Ms. Anand said, “the Supreme Court vide order dated May 14,
1999 directed Haryana and other riparian States to ensure flow of minimum fresh
water into the Yamuna for maintaining the eco system and for flushing out
impurities.''
On his part, Mr. Sinha said the 1996 order had clearly specified
that the additional water to be supplied for maintaining the pond
levels of Delhi's water treatment plants at Haiderpur and Wazirabad, was to be
allowed to flow downstream "through Yamuna". “This wording was
specifically sought and stated, so as to also maintain the ecology of the
river,'' he insisted.
After a High Powered Committee had recommended a minimum
flow of 10 cumecs or 353 cusecs, Mr. Sinha said he had asked that at least this
lesser amount be released until the scientifically evaluated "adequate
flow" was decided upon and ordered by the Supreme Court.
But while the order on minimum flow was passed in 1999, Mr. Sinha
said ``regrettably, even the "minimum flow" of 10 cumecs ordered by
the Supreme Court to be allowed to flow throughout the river is not being
permitted to flow. There is no question of sending such flow through a canal to
Delhi, when the order states that the same should flow throughout the river,
i.e. from Tajewala to Allahabad.''
“In any case it is nonsensical to send clean water through a
sewage drain, which the Najafgarh drain becomes in its lower reaches,'' he
said.
Even environmentalist Manoj Misra of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan concurs
that the apex court never directed such wastage of raw water. He said the
Supreme Court had not specified how the minimum flow of water into the Yamuna
should be maintained but had apportioned the percentage of share of this flow
between different States. “It was presumed that this flow shall be in the river
proper and not through this or that canal as Haryana is now claiming to the
following''.
“For Haryana to claim to put raw water in the river in Najafgarh
drain to meet the revival needs of Yamuna in Delhi in tune with the orders of
Supreme Court is a fallacious and misleading argument,'' the environmentalist
said, adding that this was “nothing short of a mockery of the intent of the
Supreme Court order of 1999.''
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