Uttarakhand floods lead to dry taps in Delhi-NCR

The cascading effect of the heavy floods in Uttrakhand can be seen in Noida and Ghaziabad as well. Ironically, deluge in the northern state has adversely impacted the water supply in the Delhi-National Capital Region.

The only water treatment plant in Ghaziabad was forced to shut down on Tuesday night because of heavy silt in the Upper Ganga Canal while water supply to Delhi is being maintained through storage system.

‘We had no option but to shut down the plant on Tuesday night due to non availability of water in the Upper Ganga canal which feeds the plant. The water supply in the canal was stopped on Sunday night due to heavy silt in the water due to the floods in the Uttarakhand region,’ said RK Aggarwal, in-charge of Pratap Vihar Water Treatment Plant in Ghaziabad.

The plant with a capacity of 120 million litres of water (mld) supplies 48 mld to Noida and rest to Indirapuram, Vaishali and Vasundhara sub towns of Ghaziabad.

‘The officers of irrigation department have assured us that they will start water supply in the canal from Thursday night or Friday morning,’ he added.

‘The little water which is being supplied here is completely salty and we have no option but to purchase bottled drinking water,’ said NP Singh, president of the resident welfare association of Sector 35, Noida.

Similarly, the residents in Indirapuram, Vaishali and Vasundhara are dependent on the water being supplied through bore wells and tube wells.

‘The water came only once in the morning on Wednesday. Its very difficult to complete the work in such a short time. Earlier, we used to get water for at least two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening,’ Gitanjali, a resident of Vasundhara’s sector 14 said.

RK Yadav, executive engineer in UP’s irrigation department said, ‘The supply of 427 cusecs of water to Delhi’s Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi plant is being maintained by using storage device in the canal. The device is not available in the canal which feeds water to Ghaziabad treatment plant,’

He further added that the storage device has the capacity to supply water for 20-25 20-25 days to Delhi.