Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has moved to the Supreme Court requesting more water from the neighbouring states to deal with the ongoing water shortage. The Delhi Government on Friday was seeking additional supply from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.
Delhi’s Water Crisis
The Delhi government has alleged that due to the scorching heat, the need for water has increased. Due to this people are using more water leading to a water crisis.
This is what happens when the water tanker arrives in the area.#WaterCrisis #HeatWave #Delhi pic.twitter.com/ibFytyevhE
— 𝗔𝗸𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗺𝗮 (@kaidensharmaa) May 30, 2024
Notably, the Delhi Jal Board has also announced that a fine of Rs 2,000 would be imposed on anyone found to be wasting water. The Delhi government has announced a slew of emergency measures, including a ban on usage of potable water for car washing and its use at construction sites.
The Kejriwal government also requested the central government to request the government in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to help Delhi amid the water shortage.
“The entire country is reeling under an intense heatwave, resulting in water and electricity crisis. Last year, Delhi’s power peak demand stood at 7,438 MW. This year, the peak demand has shot up to 8,302 MW. Still, Delhi’s power situation is under control and the city is not facing power cuts like other states,” Kejriwal posted on social platform X.
“In this scorching heat, the water demand has increased a lot. And the water that Delhi used to get from the neighbouring states has also been reduced. That means the demand has increased a lot and the supply has reduced. We all have to solve this together,” Kejriwal’s post on X reads.
Delhi Gov reaches court
Kejriwal complained that the BJP was staging sit-in protests against the government. Kejriwal urged everyone to help Delhi instead of doing politics.
The Himachal Pradesh Government has agreed to allow some water to Delhi but that is supposed to pass through the Wazirabad barrage because the states don’t share a physical boundary. This requires Haryana’s cooperation which according to the AAP, isn’t provided currently.
The hearing for the plea by the Delhi Government is schedules on Monday for directing Haryana to release some surplus water provided by Himachal Pradesh to the national capital. As per the cause list of the apex court, a vacation bench of Justices P K Mishra and K V Viswanathan is likely to hear the matter.
“Access to water is one of the basic human rights of an individual. Not only is water essential for sustenance, but access to water also forms an essential component of the guarantee of dignity and quality of life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution,” the plea by AAP MLA Atishi Marlena Said.
“The current water crisis, which may only get worse given peak summers and ongoing water shortage, violates the right to a dignified and quality life of the people of the NCT of Delhi, who are unable to access even adequate clean drinking water,” it added.
Mismanagement or Politics
L-G VK Saxena on Friday accused that the AAP government was blaming others for the crisis while hiding their own incompetence. He called the poll promise of ensuring all round-the-clock water supply to Delhi as an “illusion”. However, the AAP government called this act of Saxena “playing cheap and dirty politics” with no interest in the development of the city.
“I am told that Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are continuously supplying the required quota of water that is due to Delhi. Despite this, the reason for the severe water shortage in Delhi is that 54% of the water produced is unaccounted for. 40% of the water gets spoiled during supply through old and shabby pipelines,” he stated.
He blamed the government for not maintaining the infrastructure despite spending crores in expenditure. Saxena highlighted the hijack of the city by water tank mafias who were selling the water to the poor in the city. He alleged that the capital’s affluent areas were getting 550 litres of water per day while the others got only 15 litres per person.
“I am told that even today, except the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant, all of Delhi’s WTPs are producing more water than capacity. The Wazirabad WTP is not able to work to capacity because the reservoir of its barrage, where water from Haryana collects, is clogged with silt,” he said.
“Because of this, the capacity of the reservoir, which used to be 250 million gallons, has reduced to a mere 16 million gallons. Till 2013, this used to get cleaned and de-silted every year. But over the last 10 years, this has not been done even once and others have been blamed,” the L-G said.
He exposed the AAP for using social media & cases to escape accountability, while the water crisis is the cause of the government’s “mismanagement”.
