Delhi suffers as Haryana misses water share deadline

NEW DELHI: With Haryana missing its water share deadline on Monday, the capital continues to witness 40-50 MGD shortage in supply and complaints continue to pour in from areas in south and west Delhi.
Delhi receives 375 MGD water from Haryana through three sources — the Yamuna, the carrier-lined canal (CLC) and the Delhi sub-branch. “The flow of water is not affected from the Yamuna. However, the supply from CLC is disrupted.Though the deadline is over, we don’t expect Haryana to disrupt the available supply till the next meeting of Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB),” Delhi Jal Board vice-chairman Dinesh Mohania said.
If the board can’t sort out the difference, the Delhi government will again approach the Supreme Court, added Mohania, who is the MLA of Sangam Vihar. UYRB, the statutory body to resolve dispute among basin states, is scheduled to meet on Wednesday.
The apex court has rapped DJB for directly approaching SC instead of placing its plea before the board. One of the functions of UYRB, set up by the Centre in 1995, was to regulate and supply water from all storage sites and barrages up to the Okhla barrage in Delhi, in accordance with the agreements among the governments of the six basin states of Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan and Delhi.
The core of the dispute lies in calculating the water obligation and deciding which state should get the benefit of the water losses stopped by CLC, a concretised pucca canal. “Haryana is arguing that it should be calculated on the basis of the amount of water released at the barrage. The Yamuna, due to its width and other factors, witnesses 50% water loss while the CLC losses are just 5%. As Delhi paid for the canal, we should get the benefit,” Mohania argued.
DJB agreed that no written deal exists but argues it is getting water from Haryana on the same basis for the last 22 years. “According to the 1996 Supreme Court order, Delhi will continue to get as much water for domestic use from Haryana which can be consumed and filled in the two reservoirs at Wazirbad and Hyderpur,” a senior DJB official said.