Water crisis in Delhi to be tackled by today afternoon: Deputy CM Manish Sisodia
New Delhi: The water crisis in Delhi, that has mainly affected the city's north and central parts, including the VIP Lutyens' zone, remained unresolved on Tuesday, but the shortage is likely to ease by Wednesday.
A late-evening Delhi government update said the supply will be normal by Wednesday afternoon. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tweeted around 10.15 pm that the Haryana Chief Secretary has ‘assured’ the city government that water supply in Yamuna would be ‘back to normal’ by Wednesday afternoon.
Delhi Water Crisis: Chief Secretary Haryana has just assured that water supply in Yamuna would be back to normal by tomorrow afternoon.
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) May 16, 2017
Earlier, staring at further deepening of the crisis, the Delhi government, which has been blaming Haryana for the shortage, sought the intervention of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and also threatened to file a contempt petition in the high court.
"Delhi water crisis still not resolved. Water being stopped despite court order. I have directed DJB (Delhi Jal Board) to file contempt petition in HC (sic)," Sisodia had tweeted.
Two water treatment plants at Wazirabad and Chandrawal which treat around 220 MGD (million gallons per day) out of the 900 MGD treated in Delhi, are running on their 60 per cent capacity, a DJB official said on the condition of anonymity.
The Lutyens' Bungalow Zone, which comes under the New Delhi Municipal Council, houses the PMO, the Rashtrapati Bhawan and residences of several Union ministers, judges, Army officers and bureaucrats, among others.
Earlier on Tuesday, accusing the Haryana government of not giving the national capital its ‘legal share’ of water, the Delhi government sought the PMO's intervention. The DJB official said that out of the 900 MGD, around 550 (almost 60 per cent) comes from Haryana and the rest from Uttar Pradesh.
Almost every summer, Delhi and Haryana spar over water-sharing with each claiming that the other's demand exceeds the stipulated quantity. Sisodia told a press conference that around 80 MGD of Delhi's water supply has been stopped by the Haryana government, despite the Supreme Court's order prohibiting any such move.
"I have requested the Lt Governor to seek the PMO's intervention to deal with the water crisis. This is a political issue and the PMO should intervene at the earliest. We should go beyond politics on this issue," he said.
Sisodia, who has been holding the additional charge of Water since Kapil Mishra's sacking from the Delhi cabinet last week, said chief secretary-level talks between Delhi and Haryana could not arrive at any conclusion.
"I have also told the L-G that there has been a talk on the water crisis at the level of officers, but there is still no solution. If the water shortage continues, we will have to cut down supply in central Delhi," he said.
Delhi's water requirement is 900 MGD, but it is falling short by about 50 MGD since May 8, according to a senior DJB official. Sisodia also held a high-level meeting with the DJB officials on Tuesday evening and directed them to take all necessary measures to ensure the city continued to get an uninterrupted water supply, so that no inconvenience was caused to the residents.
Sisodia asked the DJB to keep ‘all its options ready’. On Monday, he had directed Chief Secretary M M Kutty to talk to his Haryana counterpart and ensure restoration of full water supply to Delhi.
