NEW DELHI: The Delhi Cabinet on Wednesday approved the recommendations of a five-member committee set up by the government to draw up the details of the Yamuna rainwater conservation project.
As per the recommendations, Rs 77,000 per acre has been proposed as the rent to be paid to people willing to lease out their land to the government for the project. Work on the ground is expected to finish in the next one month before the onset of monsoon in the national capital.
The project, which is being directly monitored by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on an hourly basis, according to the government, envisages the creation of small ponds in the floodplains to store water from the overflowing Yamuna during the monsoon season. Most of the approvals have been received for the pilot project, barring two from National Green Tribunal committees.
Through the pilot project, the Delhi government expects to recharge the water table of the national capital.
According to the government, when the present dispensation came to power in February 2015, only 58 per cent of Delhi homes received piped water. In the last four and a half years, the number of households with piped water supply has gone up to 88 per cent. The government plans to provide every household 24-hour drinking water supply.
According to the government, water will be conserved in stretches from Palla in north-west Delhi to Wazirabad in north Delhi in an eco-friendly way, with construction materials like cement not being used.
“Delhi has a peak requirement of about 1,200 MGD water. During the rains, 6 lakh cusecs of water flows through the Yamuna every day. This is enough water to satisfy Delhi’s needs for an entire year. At the moment we are not utilising this resource. Yamuna’s floodplains are large and porous and we can use this to our advantage to tap the water that flows in the river during the monsoon,” Kejriwal said while announcing the plan.