Kumbh in UP will dry up city's taps

NEW DELHI: East and south Delhi will face a major water crisis from April 15 to 30 as the Upper Ganga Canal, that brings raw supply to the city, will be closed at Haridwar to prepare for the ardh kumbh mela.
Delhi Jal Board (DJB) chief P K Tripathi said the crisis will begin as soon as the backup is used up. ‘‘There will be no fresh supply of water coming from this canal,’’ he said.
Tripathi said there will be a shortfall of a huge 20 million gallon a day (MGD) at the Bhagirathi water treatment plant in east Delhi.Tripathi said south Delhi will face the maximum shortage.
As part of the preparations, the Upper Ganga canal will be closed to allow desilting and construction work. This is done to clean the water as millions of devotees will take a holy dip in the mela. Tripathi said this work is usually done in winters, when the demand is for water is low.
‘‘But somehow the work got postponed to April. Initially the Uttaranchal government had planned to close the canal for three weeks. But on our request they reduced the shutdown time to about 15 days,’’ said Tripathi, who will be leaving with his officers to Haridwar to ensure that the work is finished.
Now DJB has set its eyes on Haryana, which is supposed to release 40 MGD raw water to Delhi but gives only 25 MGD. Moreover, the release of polluted water recently that forced the shutdown of the Haiderpur treatment plant, has added to Delhi’s woes.
‘‘While we will try our best, the crisis is inevitable. We will request the Uttaranchal government to release more water in Yamuna for our Bhagirthi plant,’’ the CEO said. ‘‘I am hopeful Haryana will release more water for Delhi. The last time we requested for more water, they did,’’ he said.
During ardh mukbh, people in the affected colonies will get water at low pressure and people living in the upper floors in south Delhi will face some problem.