DJB water treatment plants resume partial operations

New Delhi, Feb 16 (PTI) Several areas in Central,South and West Delhi today continued to grapple with severewater shortage for the third consecutive day even as twotreatment plants, which were shut following high ammoniacontent in the Yamuna, began partial operations.

A senior Delhi Jal Board official said the Wazirabadand Chandrawal water treatment plants were made functionalearlier in the day although the ammonia level in Yamuna hasnot come down to the permissible limit.

The two plants had to be closed down on Monday whenthe ammonia content in the Yamuna raw water touched 1.4 PPM(parts per million) against the normal quantity of 0.6 PPM,resulting in severe water crisis in several areas in the city.

Most areas in Central, South and West Delhi get watersupply from these two water treatment plants. Followingclosure of the plants, taps in these areas went dry forcingpeople in some areas to use bottled water for essentialpurposes.

The DJB official said the agency decided to make theplants functional following severe water crisis in theaffected areas although the ammonia level has not come down tothe permissible level.

"The ammonia level in the Yamuna raw water atWazirabad was 1.0 ppm at 8.00 am today. Although it should beless then 0.6 ppm in order to resume normal production, wehave made the plants functional considering the situation," hesaid.

The DJB asked the people to use the water beingsupplied from these WTP''s only for non-potable purposes only.

"The water should not be used for drinking. Onlyproperly boiled water should be used for drinking," said DJBCEO Ramesh Negi.

Attributing the increase in ammonia content to thedischarge of industrial and domestic wastes in Yamuna byHaryana, engineer-in-chief of DJB R K Garg said complaintshave been registered with Central Central Pollution ControlBoard and the Environment Department of the neighbouringstate.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader V K Malhotra demandedconvening of a meeting by Prime Minister Manmohan Singhwith neighbouring states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan andUttar Pradesh to ensure that Delhi gets sufficient share ofwater from Yamuna.