No end to Delhi water crisis

 Taps continued to run dry in the national capital as water supply from Haryana’s Munak Canal could not be restored on Monday.

Repair works started immediately after security forces reached the canal on Monday morning, but the protesterters had badly damaged the canal gates and the control systems that it will take another 7 to 10 days to fix them for restoring normal water supply to the city, Delhi government officials said.

However, there was some relief as the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was able to restore the functioning of Wazirabad plant on Monday evening at 25 per cent capacity. The plant was affected due to high levels of ammonia in Yamuna water.

“We have brought down the ammonia level to some extent. The current capacity at which the plant will be running is 25 per cent and we are gradually increasing it as ammonia level comes down further,” said a DJB official.

With this, North and Central Delhi are likely to get some relief. The East and some parts of South are already an exception from the crisis as water to these areas comes from Bhagirathi and Sonia Vihar plants, which have their source in Uttar Pradesh. The government also said that it will start operating the Chandrawal and Okhla plants by late Monday evening.

 As far as supply from Haryana is concerned, a DJB team consisting of two chief engineers and two superintending engineers reached the site on Monday afternoon to help Haryana irrigation officials. However, there was no relief for Delhiites on Monday.

Earlier in the day, the government said that it will be able to partially restore the supply if it gets 400 cusecs water on Monday as the repair work has already started. However, Delhi’s Water Minister Kapil Mishra said that only 50 cusecs could reach the city.

“Water has not reached from Haryana till now. We will start Bawana, Dwarka, Haiderpur, and Nangloi water plants the moment water supply is restored from Haryana. They have only released 50 cusecs so far,” he said.

He also added that water rationing will continue for now and tankers will be made available from Bhagirathi and Sonia Vihar plant.