After sending a circular to city people and creating a fear among the people of Delhi, Delhi Water minister Ms. Atishi visited Wazirabad water treatment plant today afternoon. She claimed that several parts of Delhi are dealing with water shortages and national capital must get its “fair share of water”, claiming that arbitrary action of the Haryana government has caused problems in several parts of the state.
“This water from the Yamuna is what supplies water to Wazirabad water treatment plant, Chandrawal treatment plant, and Okhla water treatment plant. When the water supply decreases, when the water level decreases in the treatment plant, when less water comes from Haryana, how will the water treatment plant produce water?,” she added.
At the same time Delhi BJP Mahila Morcha also protested today outside minister Atishi’s residence over water crisis in the national capital. The protestors were carrying earthen pots on their shoulders and placards during the demonstration and blaming the Kejriwal government for water crises in Delhi.
Some brief facts through various sources about Delhi water crises are highlighted in this article.
The NCT of Delhi is the largest metropolis in North India and has the highest demographic expansion and rapid urbanization. This NCT is high on water consumption, low on internal water resources and high on external dependency mainly through other states for water from river Yamuna, Ganga, Bhakra Beas system.
The Delhi Jal Board is responsible for the Production and Distribution of potable water after treating raw water from various sources like river Yamuna, Bhakhra Storage, Upper Ganga Canal & Groundwater and also provides treatment and disposal of waste water.
To meet the growing requirement of water due to the increase in population at a rapid rate, there is hardly any increase in water capacity in Delhi since many years by the city government. According to DJB sources, the water treatment and supply capacity of DJB was 66 MGD in 1956, which was raised to 240 MGD in 1979, 437 MGD in 1990, 650 MGD in 2002 and 906 MGD in March, 2014. At present supply capacity of all water treatment plants is 821 MGD from rivers and 135 MGD from Ranney wells and Tubewells ( Total 956 MGD).
The data provided on website of DJB clearly indicate that not much was done by present Kejriwal government to sort out this problem except crying on social media and print media.
There are 9 WTP producing water in Delhi –Haiderpur 216 MGD, Sonia Vihar 140 MGD, Wazirabad 131 MGD, Bhagirathi 110 MGD, Chandrawal 94 MGD, Dwarka 50 MGD, Nangloi 40 MGD , Okhla 20 MGD, Bawana 20 MGD . As per DJB sources , out of all these plants less treatment was reported in Wazirabad plant since last two three days. Rest of the plants the water treatment today was more than its total capacity.
The estimated total requirement of water in Delhi based on the norms of MPD 2021 is around 1140 MGD, means a shortage of about 200 MGD. The areas which are facing water scarcity today, they were also facing before 2014 also. Nothing has been done for this shortage since the new city government took place in 2014.
The water sources of Delhi Jal board are – Yamuna River 375.2 MGD, Ganga River 240.3 MGD, Bhakra Storage 218.4 MGD and Ground Water/Ranney well/ Tube well 80 MGD. Thus DJB relies on the Yamuna for roughly 40% of the water it supplies. Delhi’s share of Yamuna water comes from Haryana, which lies upstream. With the river’s water level dwindling, it has been difficult for Wazirabad water treatment plant to draw raw water, and meet the demand. The city minister blamed Haryana government for this low level which is not factually correct. It is only a blame game of city government .