Water supply remains affected for fifth day running in Delhi

On Sunday, DJB, according to its water supply report, supplied 959 MGD water to the city against the daily normal supply of 1,000 MGD

Delhi continued to face a water shortage for the fifth consecutive day on Sunday because levels of ammonia and pollutants remain high in the Yamuna, affecting water production at three of the Delhi Jal Board’s (DJB) water treatment plants, officials aware of the matter said.

The Yamuna covered with discharge of untreated industrial and domestic waste at Kalindi Kunj in New Delhi on Friday. (Sunil Ghosh/HT Photo)

The city faces a shortfall of 40-50 MGD (million gallons per day) of potable water — on Sunday, DJB, according to its water supply report, supplied 959 MGD water to the city against the daily normal supply of 1,000 MGD. North and west Delhi areas are primarily affected by the shortage.

“Less production at Wazirabad, Haiderpur and Bawana water treatment plants due to high ammonia in river and shortage of raw water,” the DJB report said. A water supply bulletin covers the 24-hour preceding period.

Water supply began getting affected on July 24 when the daily supply dropped to 971 MGD. On July 25 it dropped to 930 MGD and further to 904 MGD on July 26.

A DJB official said that there has been a notable spike in industrial pollutants and ammonia levels, which, coupled with less water in the CLC canal, has led to shortfalls. The Wazirabad Barrage in north Delhi is the primary holding area from where raw water from the Yamuna is lifted to the Wazirabad treatment plants. DJB can treat up to 0.9 ppm of ammonia level in raw water, but beyond such a high level, neutralisation of ammonia with chlorine gas regularly leads to toxic chloramine compounds.

The DJB report said that the Wazirabad plant supplied 124 MGD against the capacity of 134 MGD. The facility has catchment area of central, North and parts of New Delhi. Similarly, the Haiderpur plant, the largest facility of DJB, was operating at 213 MGD against the capacity of 241 MGD. Haiderpur plant sources water from CLC/Munak canal and it supplies water to North West and West Delhi. Bawana has a shortfall of june one MGD water. DJB estimates that shortfall of one MGD water impacts the supply to 21,500 people.

DJB received 1,748 complaints in the last 24 hours, according to the bulletin issued on Sunday, of which 706 pertain of water supply, 145 are related to tankers and 897 were related to sewage. “Of the 706 water supply related complaints, 348 were related to zero water supply and 311 pertain to water contamination or dirty water,” an official said.

Charanajeet Singh, a resident of Parmanand colony, said: “The support at DJB helpline is not working. We have been getting contaminated water supply but no action is being taken.”

Delhi has seen multiple supply disruption issues over the last two months due to issues ranging from low availability of raw water in the river, a section of Munak canal getting breached near Bawana, high turbidity and ammonia levels among the top issues.

Periodic spokes in ammonia levels have been a long-standing point of dispute between Delhi and Haryana. DJB argues that the pollutants, such as dyes, chlorides and ammonia-based chemicals, flow from the Panipat industrial dye drain. Besides Panipat, DJB also regularly cites the intermixing of industrial waste in Sonepat, where two canals carrying freshwater and industrial water run parallel to each other, separated by a sand wall of a few inches. Haryana has maintained that there are no leaking pollution sources in its industrial areas.