No water relief for Delhi

Parched Delhi has been refused help by neighbour Haryana. During a meeting with his Delhi counterpart PK Tripathi, Haryana chief secretary PK Chaudhary rejected demand for an additional supply of 80 million gallons per day (MGD).

Parched Delhi has been refused help by neighbour Haryana. During a meeting with his Delhi counterpart PK Tripathi, Haryana chief secretary PK Chaudhary rejected demand for an additional supply of 80 million gallons per day (MGD).

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"We want to help them but Delhi should also understand that Haryana is a distressed state and is not able to meet its own requirements," Chaudhary told HT.

In fact, Haryana accused Delhi, which is battling a water crisis, of overdrawing from the Yamuna for two of its treatment plants, said sources.

But, some relief is in sight for the south Delhi colonies facing shortage after an arterial pipeline broke down in north Delhi. The pipe has been repaired and supply would be restored by Tuesday, Delhi Jal Board chief executive officer Debashree Mukherjee said.

While Delhi's water demand has touched 1,150 MGD, it manages to get just about 835 MGD.

The mismatch leaves a wide supply gap in several residential pockets in south and southwest Delhi.

Haryana and Delhi signed an MoU for sharing water of the Munak Canal, which brings Yamuna's water from the neighbouring state to the Capital. As a lot of water was being lost to seepage, Delhi proposed cementing of the canal bed.

It spent Rs. 400 crore on the work and in return asked for the water saved - 80MGD but Haryana refused.

While a GoM is looking into the matter, Haryana on Monday also turned down Delhi's request for additional water apart from the daily supply of 1,000 cusecs, said the sources.