No water crisis in Delhi due to reduced supply to Sonia Vihar:DJB

New Delhi, Oct 10 (UNI) Even as reduced supply by Uttar Pradesh to the 140 MGD Sonia Vihar water treatment plant has resulted in decreased water flow to various areas in the capital supplied by it, the Delhi Jal Board today said it was taking several steps to ease the situation including drawing raw water from the Yamuna river for the plant.

While admitting that the sudden reduction in water supply to the Sonia Vihar plant has led to a significant drop in the supply to various South and East Delhi areas which drew water from it, a spokesperson of the Delhi Jal Board, however, said the Jal Board was chalking out alternative plans to tackle the problem specially keeping in view the coming festive season.

The curtailed water supply to the Sonia Vihar Plant from UP is likely to continue till the end of this month due to the annual maintenance work on the Ganga canal.

''In view of the likelihood of the supply to the Sonia Vihar Plan remaining curtailed in the next few weeks due to the annual maintenance work in the Ganga canal, we are now taking raw water from the Yamuna to make up for the reduced water supply. Also efforts will be made to rationalise the distribution system to minimise impact of reduced supply in South and East Delhi areas,''the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson , however, allayed apprehensions of any water crisis in the capital due to the sudden reduction of water supply to the Sonia Vihar plant by Uttar Pradesh, from 300 cusecs to 100 cusecs, last month.

''Though the UP Government reduced supply to the plant last month, there was no immediate affect on the supply situation to South and East Delhi areas due to the storage of water in the reservoirs of the plant,''she said.

Subsequently, however, there was reduction of supply to many areas of South and East Delhi which have been receiving water from the plant ever since the plant was operationalised in August. While earlier, these areas were recieving 105 MGD of water, after UP's reduction in raw water supply, the water flow was reduced to about 50 MGD.

The 140 MGD plant was providing water mainly to plush South and southwest Delhi colonies.

Decrying the UP Government's move to reduce water supply to the plant, a spokesperson said,''this sudden reduction in water supply to the plant by Uttar Pradesh, from 300 cubic centimetres per second (Cusecs) to just 105 cusecs, is completely unjustified. Also, the claim of the UP Government that the reduction in water supply was due to a reduction in the desired outflows from the Tehri dam was disproved by water discharge data available with the Central Water Commission.'' UNI AR SHB DB1834