Centre urges Delhi, Yamuna states to use water efficiently

The Upper Yamuna River Board and the central government have urged the states, including Delhi, to focus on reducing water consumption by adopting efficient practices

New Delhi

There are six basin states of the Yamuna, which are Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

At a point in time when the 1994 water sharing agreement among the Yamuna basin states is set to come up for renegotiation, the Upper Yamuna River Board and the central government have urged the states, including Delhi, to focus on reducing water consumption by adopting efficient practices.

A meeting of the Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) was held last week, wherein the Centre asked all the basin states to work towards maintaining the ecological flow in the river.

“All basin states have been asked to reduce their consumption, plug leakages, wastage and adopt more water efficient practices so that water can spared to flow in the Yamuna,” a government official said on condition of anonymity.

There are six basin states of the Yamuna, which are Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand.

On November 19, HT had reported that the basin states, in a northern zonal council meeting, demanded increased allocation of river water. Punjab, which is not part of the agreement, also sought to be considered as part of the basin states. Delhi requested to increase its share of Yamuna water from 980 million gallons a day (mgd) to 1,250 mgd and fast-track the Renukaji, Lakhwar, and Kishau dam projects.

A government official said that non-revenue water (NRW), i.e., unaccounted water in Delhi is around 50-52% and efforts are on to reduce leakages and water accounting. “Flow meters have been installed at all major primary nodes of the water supply network in Delhi which is helping us to improve the water accounting. More meters will come up on smaller nodes in coming months. Simultaneously, we are working to reduce the leakages by replacement of the old pipeline network,” the official added.

DJB operates a water line network of 15,600km of pipelines connected to nine water treatment plants and other sources. “We have identified 2800km of line which will be replaced on priority,”the official said.

Last month, the Delhi government cleared ₹2,400-crore Chandrawal project to revamp water supply in the catchment area of the Chandrawal Water Treatment Plant (WTP), which will include replacement of 1,000 kilometres of old and decrepit water supply lines.