The Hindu : New Delhi News : No end in sight for Delhi's water woes

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

No end in sight for Delhi's water woes

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, DEC. 27. Delhi's water woes are unlikely to be resolved even after the "promised'' release of 80 cusecs of water by the Uttar Pradesh Government for the Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plant.

Highly placed sources in the DJB said today that the recent developments were only going to financially help the multinational company which has constructed the plant and has a contract for its operation and maintenance for another ten years.

Stating that the Uttar Pradesh Government had agreed to release 80 cusecs of water from its Upper Ganga Canal for the Sonia Vihar plant only on condition that the Delhi Government would return the same quantity from the Yamuna, top DJB officials conceded that in reality there was no additional availability or allocation of raw water to the Capital.

"On the other hand, once we start receiving raw water, we would have to manage more than 20 cusecs from our available resources and release it into the Yamuna. This would certainly result in a shortage of water in the Capital during the period of release of water by Uttar Pradesh," the official said.

Raw water to be supplied by Uttar Pradesh is to be used for flushing and trial run of the plant and the transmission system. "In such a condition, we are expecting that more than 20 cusecs would go waste during flushing and trial run," they said.

The official said there was "need to worry" about the next summer as Delhi so far had no firm commitment or assurance from anywhere to get 140 million gallons per day (MGD) for regular treatment of water after the Sonia Vihar plant is commissioned following its trial run. Assurance from Uttar Pradesh is conditional and is only for trial run. "In effect, we are not getting even a single drop of additional water," the official said. The Uttar Pradesh Government is unlikely to give us water after this period, mainly because of political compulsions and unavailability of water with it. Farmers of 11 districts in western Uttar Pradesh have already launched an agitation fearing that water would be released for giving commercial profit to a multinational,'' the official added.

"The Congress-ruled Uttaranchal Government is unlikely to help us any because despite our best efforts we have so far not been able to get any assurance from them. Agitations against commercial use of Ganga water are getting strong with each passing day from Gangotri to Hardwar. This is the reason why even a friendly Government is Uttranchal is not coming to our rescue," the official said.

Officials said the private player Degremont, which has constructed the plant and is responsible for its operation and maintenance, is the "only" stakeholder to benefit from recent developments. "Once the plant gets commissioned after trial run, the company would receive the remaining portion of its payment, which is Rs. 35 crores. Rs. 12 lakh per month payment to it would begin immediately as maintenance and operation cost," he said.

The most crucial is the Rs. 50,000 penalty per day which the Delhi Government would have to pay to the company in case it is unable to provide water to Sonia Vihar plant after its commissioning. "This seems to be the most likely case as till now we do not have any firm assurance for supplying water to the plant," a top DJB source said.

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