NEW DELHI: Twenty-nine years ago, the governments of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for tapping monsoon flows in the Renukaji, Kishau, and Lakhwar dams to ease Delhi’s water shortage. However, till today the plan remains on paper, with no work started to direct the flows to the Yamuna and its tributaries.
The status of the project is confounding since the Delhi government has already paid Rs 230.73 crore for the three dams. Officials estimate the three reservoirs could meet the capital’s drinking water needs for the next 25 years.
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has flagged the delay in a recent Delhi Jal Board (DJB) audit, noting despite their status as projects of national importance, construction has not yet begun owing to pending approvals from the Upper Yamuna River Board and the National Green Tribunal.
“In order to utilise the flow of the river during monsoon, an MoU was signed (November 1994) by the basin States to build two dams on Yamuna River, one at Renukaji in Himachal Pradesh and another at Kishau in Uttarakhand. Delhi Jal Board (DJB) made payment of Rs 230.73 crore for construction of Renukaji dam (Rs 214.84 crore), Kishau dam (Rs 8.10 crore) and another dam at Lakhwar (Rs 7.79 crore) to HP and Uttarakhand (UK) Governments (March 2022).
These projects were declared as projects of national importance. However, work on Renuka dam, Lakhwar and Kishau dams was under planning and approval stage with the Upper Yamuna River Commission (UYRC). The possibility of augmentation of raw water availability from Yamuna River in the near future is thus remote,” the CAG noted.
Once completed, the Lakhwar dam can supply around 135 MGD to Delhi. The Renukaji and Kishau projects could add another 275 MGD and 372 MGD respectively, helping stabilise environmental flow in the river and reducing dependence on seasonal inflows.
HP, Uttarakhand dams can help capital create reserves for emergency usage
The Kishau multipurpose project, planned on the Tons river, a major Yamuna tributary, envisages a 236-metre-high dam with a live storage capacity of 1,324 million cubic metres. The project has faced prolonged delays due to inter-state disputes and financial challenges.
Among the three, the Lakhwar project is the largest. It involves constructing a 204-metre-high concrete dam on the Yamuna near Lohari village in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun district. Conceived in 1976, construction began but was halted in 1992 due to funding constraints.
The Renukaji dam, proposed on the Giri river in Himachal Pradesh’s Sirmour district, is planned as a 148-metre-high rock-filled structure. Apart from water storage, it is designed to generate 40 MW of hydropower during peak flow periods, with water to be shared among Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
Officials said Lakhwar is partially constructed, with about 13 per cent of the work completed. Renukaji has entered the tendering stage, while Kishau remains at the inter-state agreement and approval phase.
The CAG report further said an agreement was signed between the DJB and the Himachal Pradesh government in December 2019 for regular supply of 368 cusecs (237 MGD) from November to February and 268 cusec (173 MGD) from March to June every year.
The CAG audit, however, observed that the agreement has not been implemented despite repeated request by the DJB to Himachal Pradesh for the implementation of the MoU. The Jal Shakti Vibhag of Himachal Pradesh, vide letters dated December 2020 and August 2021, conveyed that there was no surplus water available with it during the period from November to June.
Curiously, based on the available data, the DJB utilises the entire quantity of raw water received daily and does not have a water reserve for even a single day. The DJB audit was conducted from April 2022 to February 2023, covering a period of five years from 2017–18 to 2021–22.
Apart from scrutiny of records and analysis of information available at the DJB headquarters, field visits and joint inspections were conducted to check the functioning of water and sewage treatment plants, to assess the trapping status of drains and to verify the progress of sewerage and water projects.
Delhi requires 1,260 MGD of water, against which the DJB supplies only 935 MGD of treated/potable water, to 93 per cent households in Delhi.