The Hindu : New Delhi News : Water crisis persists

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Water crisis persists

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 27. Residents of the Capital continued to reel under the impact of an acute shortage of water today, even as the power situation returned to normal except for some parts of North-West Delhi.

For the fifth consecutive day, the water level at the Western Yamuna Canal and Wazirabad barrage was below the required 710 feet and 674.50 feet respectively, thus badly affecting the treatment and supply of potable water to residents across the Capital.

"The situation is not normal. However, it is improving," said a DJB spokesperson. The level of raw water at the Western Yamuna Canal and Wazirabad this morning was 709.5 feet and 673.80 feet respectively. A major part of South, North, North-West, and Central Delhi were the worst affected areas.

Though the DJB Member (Water), S. S. Mondal, said they resorted to one-time supply of water in these parts of the Capital, residents in several colonies complained that they had not received any water for the past several days. "This summer we have been relying solely on DJB water tankers," rued L.B. Ghosh, resident of Chittaranjan Park in South Delhi. "This has been one of the worst summers in the past several years," complained Binay Kumar, a resident of Vikas Vihar in North-West Delhi.

Mr. Mondal said the crisis was likely to continue till the arrival of the monsoon, as Haryana was not supplying enough water. "There has been a shortfall in supply of water from the neighbouring State for the past few months now. This has been the prime reason for the crisis in Delhi. We have been taking up the issue with Haryana officials at various levels, but there has been no improvement in supply from their side, despite assurances from the top level. Under such circumstances, we are now helpless," Mr. Mondal said.

On the other hand, due to improvement in the Northern Grid, which was hit by trippings on Monday afternoon, the situation on the power front was normal. The peak demand met was 3,317 MW at 3 p.m. However due to the tripping of Narela sub-station of the Delhi Transco at 3-30 p.m. load-shedding had to be resorted to in several areas of the North Delhi Power Limited. The areas hit were Shahjadabag, Rohtak Road, Punjabi Bagh, Jahangirpuri, Sultanpuri, Mangolpuri, Rohini, Narela and Khampur.

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