With high ammonia levels, city’s water woes may not end soon

The high level of ammonia due to heavy pollution in the alternative water channels – Delhi Sub Branch Canal and Drain no 2 through Yamuna River — forced the Delhi Jal Board to shut down all its plants on Thursday forcing the city towards another water crisis. Meanwhile, in a written reply to Supreme Court, the Haryana government has submitted that it would take at least 15 days to repair the Munak Canal.

According to DJB officials, they were forced to shut down all the seven Water Treatment Plants fed by Haryana water thus the city will face 70 per cent water crisis on Friday. “As Munak Canal is damaged, we were receiving 400 cusecs of water through DSB and 500 hundred through Yamuna. The Ammonia level in the water crossed 3 ppm forcing us to shut down all the seven WTPs. We are now left with Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi which produce 240 mgd of water in total,” said a senior officer of DJB.

“We have no option but to go for water rationing through 760 water tankers we have,” she added. The Munak Canal bringing raw water to Delhi was damaged by the Jat agitators. The left bank of the CLC was totally washed away to a length of around 200 ft and the soil eroded around 20 ft deep below the bed. DJB has released Rs 1 crore to Haryana besides providing 4 heavy earth movers, 18 dumpers and a team of senior officers. The areas facing sever water crisis are Vikaspuri, Uttam Nagar, Subhash Nagar, Mahavir Enclave, Sitapuri, Lajwanti Garden Naraina, Inderpuri, etc in West Delhi, and Dwarka, Palam, Raj Nagar and its adjoining areas etc in South Delhi. DJB officers have prepared a plan to provide water on alternate days to Dwarka and adjoining areas and also on different time schedules.

After observing the submission from both Delhi and Haryana governments, the Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice T S Thakur and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit said: “We are indeed happy to note that there is no adversarial element in this litigation as both the governments appear to be willing to co-operate with each other in every respect.”