L-G writes to CM, flags Wazirabad WTP’s ‘miserable hygiene, sanitary conditions’

New Delhi: Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has written 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.

Reacting to the letter, Delhi Water Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the L-G of “playing dirty politics over the sensitive issue of water supply” and claimed that illegal sand mining in Haryana was blocking the supply of Yamuna water towards the national Capital.

In what could trigger a fresh tussle between the L-G and the AAP government, Saxena also spoke about Delhi Jal Board’s “gross inaction” in cleaning and desilting the reservoir pond behind the Wazirabad barrage which supplies water to Wazirabad and Chandrawal Water Treatment Plants. He claimed that Delhi lost over nine lakh million gallons of water because the pond was not desilted.

“It is with a sense of deep distress that I seek your urgent intervention into the state of affairs prevalent at the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and the feeder pond area at Wazirabad Barrage, that feeds the Wazirabad and Chandrawal WTPs,” the L-G’s letter read.

Mentioning his visit to the area on March 9, Saxena said he witnessed “grave dereliction and criminal neglect” of the WTP and the pond area which is resulting in a “totally avoidable water shortage”.

The plant itself is marred by rusted and trash-ridden reservoirs, corroded pipelines, silt-covered equipment and power-guzzling water pumps, the letter alleged.

“Despite a desilting contract being in place since 2013, no de-siltation took place resulting in the depth of the pond reducing from 4.26 metres to a mere 0.42 metres during the last eight years,” Saxena said.

In the letter, he noted that the desilting work was stopped due to a stay order from the National Green Tribunal in September 2014 and was restarted after the stay was lifted in 2015.

“It is worth underlining here that while in about nine months between 2013 and 2014, five lakh cubic metres of silt was removed, after lifting of the stay by hon’ble NGT, in the period between 2015 to 2018, just 1.1 cubic metres of silt was removed. “Even thereafter, despite no work happening, it took the DJB about four years to terminate the contract as late as February 2022,” the L-G said.

The pond kept getting silted and shrunk. Of the 6.1 lakh cubic metres of silt removed between the dates when there was no stay on desilting, “good silt” amounting to about three lakh cubic metres was sold by the contractor and the remaining was left at the site, which thereafter, reclogged the pond area, Saxena claimed. “In addition to this, natural siltation also kept taking place and progressively led to further shrinking of the pond, thereby proportionately reducing Delhi’s capacity to hold and store water so essential to maintaining its supply, especially during time susceptible to the shortage,” he said.

Saxena, in his letter, said that Delhi is now faced with a situation wherein silt amounting to about 10 lakh cubic metres is yet again clogging the pond area, reducing its holding capacity.