Delhi Jal Board Chairman and Water Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj Saturday alleged that the illegal sand mining in Haryana was blocking the supply of Yamuna's water towards the national capital and asked the LG to take note of the matter. The minister's allegation came on the heels of a letter Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal flagging the "miserable hygiene and sanitary conditions" at the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant which supplies drinking water to large parts of the national capital.
In a three-page letter, Saxena also spoke about DJB's "gross inaction" in cleaning and desilting the pond reservoir behind the Wazirabad barrage which supplies water to Wazirabad and Chandrawal Water Treatment Plants. Reacting to the charges, Bharadwaj said illegal sand mining in Haryana has been blocking the supply of Yamuna water towards Delhi, and Haryana is instead releasing industrial wastewater towards Delhi. He invited the LG on a joint inspection of illegal sand mining blocks in Haryana.
"People of Delhi feel extremely sad that Hon'ble LG is playing dirty politics over sensitive issue of water supply in Delhi. Either he is unaware of the facts or he is deliberately doing cheap politics. "The issue raised by him is due to the inefficiency and inaction of Haryana govt because of which the people of Delhi are suffering. Hon'ble LG is trying to pass the buck of BJP ruled Haryana' govt's fault on Delhi government," he said in a statement.
Saxena in his letter said that the frequent water shortage in the city, including on the day before Holi, on account of Wazirabad and Chandrawal water treatment plants not being fully operational, was not due to the "Haryana excuses that AAP makes to fool the people." The minister in his capacity as DJB Vice Chairman had visited Wazirabad WTP and pond last week to show reduced level of water in the Wazirabad pond. To achieve full production from Wazirabad and Chandrawal WTP, Wazirabad pond level should be 674.5 feet.
"For last few weeks the pond level has touched bottom level of the pond at 671.4 feet. This has adversely affected production of WTPs at Chandrawal and Wazirabad. Latest production of Chandrawal is 90 MGD against normal production of 100 MGD while Wazirabad is producing 90 MGD against a usual production of 135 MGD. "This shortage has impacted water supply all over Delhi as raw water is being diverted from other WTPs like Haiderpur, Dwarka, Nangloi, and Okhla. The water which is accumulated in Wazirabad pond is nothing but industrial waste from Haryana drains. The accumulated water is not useful for any purpose due to very high levels of pollutants, especially ammonia," the statement said.
Explaining further, the politician said that even deepening of Wazirabad pond cannot solve the issue of contamination because it would increase chances of contamination of groundwater aquifer. Wazirabad and Chandrawal WTPs have been receiving contaminated water for the past many years causing the mechanical equipment to corrode frequently, Bhardwaj had said last week. He had also said that rampant mining is going on in the upstream stretch of Yamuna due to which clean water released from Hathnikund and Tajewala is not reaching the stretch of Delhi.
"Visit of LG is a welcome step but being a nominee of the same political party's Central govt, it is requested that matters should be taken up with BJP-run Haryana govt by him. His help is also required to increase allocation of water for the share of Delhi from Hathnikund and Tajewala as the population of Delhi has increased 2.5 Times since last allocation," Bharadwaj said. "Currently Delhi is getting its water based on allocation done by Central govt in 1995-1996. Delhi Jal Board has already made several requests to the Central govt to increase allocation of Delhi being capital of India," he added.
The minister in an interview to PTI earlier this month too had said Centre should increase Delhi's share of water which has remained unchanged since 1994. "Delhi is the capital of India and due to this crisis areas prominent areas including areas of VVIPs like NDMC, Parliament, and even president House are severely affected. People of Delhi have to even curtail the use for Holi which have severely affected their religious sentiments as well. This is a matter of shame that politics is done on crucial issued of water.
DJB has been producing more than 990 MGD of water consistently for the last several months."However, since February 23, flow has stopped and ammonia levels have spiked very high thereby production has been declining consistently. LG is requested to take up the matter on priority with the Haryana govt and the Minister of Jal Shakti," Bhardwaj demanded.
