Soz convenes Ministers meet to discuss Delhi's drinking water woes

New Delhi, Dec 20 (UNI) A meeting of Irrigation and Water Resources Ministers of Upper Yamuna states, convened by Union Water Resources Minister Saifuddin Soz, discussed ways and measures to meet the drinking water needs of the National Capital.

The meeting reviewed in detail the various phases of execution and bottlenecks in the implementation of Renuka Dam, Kishau Dam and Lakhawar-Vyasi Dam projects.

It felt that there was a need for greater coordination and interaction among the states to avoid the delay. The last review meeting participated by the Chief Ministers of these states was held in April this year after a gap of nine years.

The meeting expressed its concern about the delay in getting the environmental clearance for Renuka dam on river Giri, a tributory of Yamuna in Himachal Pradesh. The 148 metre hydro-electric dam with a storage capacity of 542 million cubic metres of water seeks to produce 40 MW of power. The meeting was informed that a detailed project report would be ready by March 2007.

In Kishau reservoir in Uttaranchal on the river Tons, the meet discussed the ways of bringing down the construction period to five years from nine years while the finer aspects of Lakhawar-Vyasi project were deliberated upon taking note of the suggestions and concerns of states concerned. The National Hydro Power Corporation, entrusted with the construction task had prepared a revised DPR to the Central Water Commission.

The Irrigation Ministers meeting was attended by Mr Kaul Singh Thakur, (Himachal Pradesh), Prof Sanwar Lat Jat, (Rajastan), Mr Om Prakash Singh, (UP), Mr Ajay Singh Yadav, (Haryana) and Dr A K Walia (Delhi) besides top irrigation officials of the states and Water Resources Ministry.

In the meeting Himachal Pradesh offered all its assistance to Delhi to meet the growing drinking water demand especially when the state had to host Commonwealth Games in 2010. Delhi on its part agreed to meet the revised cost of environment and forest clearance, relief and rehabilitation.

Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on their part expressed their concern about Delhi polluting Yamuna waters in its territory. Prof Soz forwarded their concerns to Mr Walia and urged him take steps to clean up the river in the national capital's territory.

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