‘Water supply will be hit’: Raghav Chadha warns of scarcity in Delhi, slams Haryana

AAP leader and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice chairman Raghav Chadha said that the Yamuna's water, being sent by Haryana, was full of ‘untreatable’ waste.

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice chairperson Raghav Chadha on Tuesday once again raked up the water dispute between Delhi and Haryana, warning that supply in several areas of the Capital could be affected due to the presence of “untreatable” waste in the water of the Yamuna being sent by the neighbouring state.

AAP leader and DJB vice chairman Raghav Chadha (ANI)

“At a time when several festivals are on the horizon and the Covid-19 pandemic is at its peak, Haryana is sharing water which has a huge quantity of ammonia and industrial waste in it, which is untreatable. We cannot share the water if we cannot treat it. The Yamuna provides 40% of the water produced in Delhi every day,” Chadha, also an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, said at a press conference.

“Several areas of Delhi, including North Delhi, South Delhi, Central Delhi and West Delhi 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. Haryana is indulging in criminal negligence,” Chadha, who took over as the DJB vice chairperson in March 2020, said. He added that Haryana was “wilfully violating the right to life of the 22 million residents of Delhi.”

Noting that the Delhi government has approached the Supreme Court in this regard, the AAP leader also said DJB has written several times in the last 15-20 days to Haryana over the rising levels of ammonia in the Yamuna. Chadha further urged Haryana to realise its responsibility to not play with the lives of the people of Delhi.

Delhi and Haryana have been, for years, involved in a dispute over the sharing of the water of the Yamuna. The two states have also locked horns over the high level of pollution in the Yamuna, with both the Centre and Haryana government, where the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power, describing the AAP-led Delhi government as a “habitual offender.”