The Hindu : New Delhi News : Delhi faces major water, power crisis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 25, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Delhi faces major water, power crisis

Staff Reporter

Jal Board's office ransacked in Sagarpur

NEW DELHI: Large parts of the Capital were under the grip of a major power and water crisis on Tuesday with matters taking an ugly turn in the afternoon when angry residents of water-starved Sagarpur in South-West Delhi ransacked the Delhi Jal Board's office and reportedly manhandled an executive engineer posted there. The two-hour-long power cut left a couple of water treatment plants - Chandrawal and Wazirabad - virtually crippled during the day.

According to reports, residents of Sagarpur have been facing a severe water crisis since the beginning of this summer. On Tuesday afternoon some of them marched to the DJB office and ransacked it. They also manhandled and gheraoed the executive engineer posted there. Later, the local police reached the spot and brought the situation under control. An FIR was also registered.

Local residents alleged that they had not been getting adequate water supply for the past two months and charged the DJB with creating "artificial shortage'' to fleece the residents. "We have been hiring private water tankers and purchasing bottled water to meet their daily needs,'' said a resident, adding that all their complaints and pleas to the water utility have gone unheard.

Meanwhile, a sharp decline in the water level at the crucial Wazirabad barrage on the Yamuna affected the functioning of at least two water treatment plants - Chandrawal and Wazirabad - and paralysed supply to Civil Lines and the Central Delhi areas. "The level has gone done by almost two feet. The minimum water at the barrage should remain at 674.5 feet, but on Tuesday it fell to 672.8 feet," a DJB official said.

Badly hit

And to add to the water woes, power supply to both the plants remained affected for over two hours during the afternoon due to some major local fault, leaving the plants non-functional. "And when power supply was resumed, it took another three hours to streamline the water treatment system. Thus, crucial five hours were lost, causing a major water crisis," he added.

The areas that remained badly hit due to water crisis included Shadipur, Patel Nagar, Timarpur, Azadpur, Burari, Karol Bagh, Model Town, Mukherjee Nagar, Gujrawalan Town, Civil Lines, Delhi University area, while supply to the New Delhi Municipal Council, Delhi Cantonment and the Walled City areas were also affected.

The sudden fall in water level at the barrage is likely to affect the Capital's supply for at least another couple of days till the level at the Wazirabad barrage improves. And the DJB's only hope is Haryana that is expected to release some additional water to normalise the situation in the barrage. "The water utility is also to be blamed for the decline in water level as it often resorts to withdrawing more water from the barrage," the official added.

Similarly, unscheduled power cuts also affected normal life in the city. Due to low frequency and shortfall in power supply in the Northern Gird, Transco had to resort to load-shedding of 248 MW during the day. This affected supply to many areas, particularly in East, North-East, Outer and West Delhi areas. The peak demand was recorded at 2,977 MW at 2 p.m.

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