With water problems in the past three days slowly turning into a crisis, Delhi government has decided to petition Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) to get the city its rightful share.
Delhi Jal Board had on Wednesday received a rap from Supreme Court for approaching courts and National Green Tribunal instead of the river board for resolving the dispute with Haryana.
Meanwhile, pond levels at Wazirabad, which receives raw water from the Haryana section of Yamuna, have fallen below 671 feet against the normal level of 674.5 feet.
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The situation is worse than March when a similar crisis had unfolded. Senior DJB officials said that the treatment plant is currently processing around 869 million gallons per day (MGD) leading to a shortfall of around 45 MGD in the city¡¯s water supply. Delhi has an installed capacity of 913 MGD.
DJB vice-chairman Dinesh Mohania claimed that the civic body was pulled up by the apex court on technical grounds.
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¡°Supreme Court objected to DJB approaching it as the MoU has been signed by Delhi government. We will approach courts if UYRB rejects the application. The water supply situation is turning bad with each passing day,¡± he added.
Sources said that DJB was reluctant in approaching UYRB because questions have been raised about the statutory body¡¯s neutrality in the past.
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¡°The order of UYRB had been overruled by a court in 1996. We filed this plea as it was contempt of the SC¡¯s order, but the judges felt otherwise. UYRB is headed by officials under Union ministry of water resources and are almost never neutral in their decisions,¡± an official said.
With Haryana allegedly reducing raw water supply to Delhi thorough the CLC canal, many areas across the capital received water at low pressure on Tuesday and Wednesday. Primarily, the two water treatment plants at Wazirabad and Chandrawal have been affected and raw water is being diverted there from other WTPs to meet the shortfall.