Haryana provides Delhi with more water than its fixed share, says Khattar

Chandigarh: A day after Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal's appeal to Haryana for more water, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Suday said that Haryana is providing water to Delhi as per its fixed share. If Delhi is not ensuring proper management of its share, then there is no solution to this problem.

Khattar said that water is being supplied to Delhi as per its fixed share and there is no problem regarding water. He said that both the barrages including Haiderpur and another barrage are being filled by Haryana on time. Haryana does not have surplus water, he added.

He said that during the summer season, the state government is ensuring door-to-door water supply to the local people. Monsoon is about to arrive in a few days and all water-related problems will also be resolved, he added. Meanwhile, for the last two years, Delhi is alleging that Haryana is not releasing Delhi's full share, but as per Haryana's version, the actual facts are totally different.

The inter-state allocation of Yamuna waters among Haryana, Delhi, UP, and Rajasthan is determined and decided by the statutory body, Upper Yamuna River Board, headquartered in Delhi. Haryana is not only supplying the authorised share of Delhi, determined by UYRB but also much more than that, in compliance of orders of the Supreme Court, sources in the state government said. As per orders of the Supreme Court of 1996, Haryana was required to fulfill water requirements of Wazirabad (120 million gallons per day, MGD), Chandrawal (90MGD), and Haiderpur (200 MGD), WTPs (Water Treatment Plants) as per capacity of plants at that point in time with cumulative capacity 120+90+200 = 410 MGD or 762 Cs.

On top of that, UYRB added 10% production losses in their WTPs (UYRB indicated these production losses were unusually high). Further, 42 MGD Nangloi WTP was made an allocation in the year 2000 which requires 78 Cs. water. Therefore, the total flow rate is 762+78=840 cusecs.

After adopting a figure of 10% as process losses in these plants, the flow rate works out as 924 cusecs at WTPs in Delhi or 939 Cs. at Bawana Contact Point. However, Delhi has constructed more Water Treatment Plants at Bawana (20 MGD), Dwarka (40 MGD) and Okhla (20MGD) with a total capacity of 164 Cs without identifying any raw water source for the same. Resultantly, even when Haryana supplies the full authorized share of Delhi and on top of that additional water to comply with the mandate of SCI, as mentioned above, which compels Haryana to supply water to Delhi, more than its authorised share, due to poor planning as mentioned above and high production and distribution losses ( more than 30 % as highlighted in Economic Survey of Delhi for the Year 2017-18), Delhi faces drinking water problems, for which it tries to find a scapegoat every summer and tries to pass the blame on Haryana, the sources alleged.

Delhi tried to misguide Supreme Court in 2021 by filing a contempt petition on false grounds and the same was dismissed by Hon'ble Court on July 23, 2021, and Delhi was warned to be careful in filing such petitions repeatedly. The shortage of water in Delhi is due to poor planning.