NEW DELHI: Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice-chairman Raghav Chadha on Wednesday wrote to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar seeking his intervention into the issue of “short supply of raw water” to Delhi and high levels of pollutants in it released by the neighbouring state.
Chadha said high ammonia concentration in the river Yamuna results in a “partial or complete” shutdown of two water treatment plants Chandrawal and Wazirabad which supply around 228 million gallons of drinking water to the people of Delhi.
Industrial waste discharged into the drains in Haryana reaches the Wazirabad barrage and pollutes the Yamuna downstream, he said in the letter. “Ammonia levels rose to 8.4 parts per million on Wednesday. Along with it, a short supply of raw water has caused a major impact on the drinking water supply in the nation capital. The production capacity at the two WTPs has reduced by an alarming 40 per cent due to the combination of these two factors,” he said.
It is affecting “22 million people in Delhi and their right to clean drinking water”, Chadha said. “If the situation remains so, several areas will be affected as Haryana is not honouring even its legal commitment as directed by the Supreme Court with regards to the clean water that it has to supply to Delhi,” he added.
“We can treat contaminated water having levels of ammonia up to 3 to 4 ppm but our WTPs cannot treat contaminated water having such levels of ammonia. Delhi may face water shortage in some areas,” Chadha said. The Yamuna provides around 40 per cent of the total use of water per day in Delhi.