HINDUSTAN TIMES, NEW DELHI 02 | THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2015 7TH OF water drydaze crisis A SERIES Over the next few weeks, HT looks at YOUR FEEDBACK talktous onfacebook ontwitter WILL BE SHOW- Delhi’s water supply, and helps to find Want to pitch in with your suggestions Visit facebook.com/hindustantimes Tweet your views ways to manage the precious resource and share your problems ? Write to us to send in your opinions. You can and suggestions CASED IN A SPECIAL in a more sustainable manner. at [email protected] also log on to hindustantimes.com @htTweets RESPONSE CORNER Canal that quenches Delhi’s thirst MUNAK CANAL A bone of contention between Haryana and Delhi, the water channel serves large parts of the city Mallica Joshi and Ritam Halder ■ [email protected] NEW DELHI: For the first time in years, Dwarka residents have had a summer when they got more water than previ- ous years, and they have to thank the Munak Canal for it. After years of impasse between the Haryana and the Delhi governments, the Dwarka Water Treatment Plant with a capacity of 40 MGD (million gallons a day) became functional this year after Haryana started releasing 80 MGD of water to meet Delhi’s needs. Dwarka residents are now a happy bunch, thanks to this extra water. Activist Diwan Singh, who is a member of the Dwarka Water Bodies Committee and Yamuna Satyagraha, said the Munak canal has come as a blessing for the people of parched Dwarka. “Now that water is coming from Munak and because of a few other projects that got completed recently, the situation has become so much better. Earlier, Dwarka was receiving not more than 3 million gallons of water per day. The rest was being extracted from illegal tube wells. After the Dwarka water treat- ment plant became functional in April, it brought a lot of relief,” Singh said. It is precisely to meet the drinking water needs of Delhi that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), officials said, has been fighting it out in the Delhi High Court. NEXT “We are finally getting A look at the water water from Haryana and pollution levels this has made the lives of in the capital lakhs of Delhiites easier. Our water treatment plants are all functional and that has helped us tide over this summer without any major problems,” said SS Yadav, DJB CEO. As per the high court orders, ultra sonic meters have been installed at various points along the Munak Canal to ensure ■ Though bathing and washing is strictly prohibited in the canal, villagers clean their buffaloes in the Munak Canal in Haryana. VIRENDRA SINGH GOSAIN/HT PHOTO the flow of water is being maintained. “Delhi is not asking for anything more than was agreed to in the 1996 MoU. The facetoface flow is to be maintained at 719 cusecs (one POINTS OF cubic foot per second). Once the canal was LIFELINE TO DELHI CONTENTION R R JOWEL, principal secy, irrigation dept, Haryana concretised, water lost because of seep- A look at the Munak Canal and the controversy around it (past and present) age, which was earlier around 30%, is now 5% only. We save 25% water and this Munak WHAT IS THE MUNAK CANAL? is the water that is being sent to the new A cemented water channel that carries water Who provides the 80 MGD ‘There is no stand-off, Delhi is water treatment plants. In fact, Delhi had Panipat from Haryana to Haidarpur in Delhi savings from Munak canal planned the three new water treatment Length: 102 kilometers after it is concretised to getting its share of water’ plants at Dwarka, Bawana and Okhla MUNAK Starting point: Munak in Haryana prevent seepage? because of the water saved by concretis- CANAL Rajesh Moudgil Board through the CLC, Delhi started ing the canal,” said a senior DJB official. HARYANA VERSION: The 80 ■ [email protected] taking water by puncturing it near The Delhi government, to make sure Yamuna FLASHBACK MGD is already part of the Izajatnagar, which we objected to and that water lost to seepage is used to meet river ■ 1996: MoU signed between Delhi and Haryana govts amount Delhi gets. CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government DJB plugged it. We are now supply- the need of Delhiites, paid `500 crore Sonipat to build a canal to carry Yamuna water to capital DELHI VERSION: The amount of maintains there is no stand-off with ing 719 cusecs water to Haidarpur, on the project to concretise the canal. ■ 2003: Work started on project water saved after seepage was Delhi over the Munak canal and says it Wazirabad and Nangloi water works. The 80 MGD of water sent to the three ■ A huge amount of water was lost due to seepage stopped should come to Delhi. has been giving the capital its share. The issue is that Delhi’s requirement plants is serving nearly 40 lakh people, in transit as the canal was porous for more water has been on rise, Haidarpur primarily in south-west and south Delhi. ■ Canal was concretised to avoid seepage losses. Maintaining pond levels at What is the status of the stand-off on though we have our limitations. the Munak canal? Water amounting to 80 MGD* was saved Wazirabad and Haidarpur ■ There is no stand-off in the context What is Delhi demanding and why? WE ARE FINALLY GETTING DELHI Ghaziabad Delhi paid `500 crore to Haryana for the project and demanded an extra 80 MGD of water water treatment plants at all. Earlier, we were giving Delhi There was a Supreme Court order in WATER FROM HARYANA AND ■ Haryana has to release 719 cusecs of water Haryana is following this after a its share of water from Yamuna river 1996 asking Haryana to give water Noida to Delhi, as per a court order Supreme Court order. If the levels through the Delhi sub-branch. Now to the full capacity of the Haidarpur THIS HAS MADE THE LIVES OF Gurgaon ■ Haryana has to ensure the Wazirabad fall, the authorities are alerted. we are giving it the same (719 cusecs and Wazirabad ponds. We have › of water) through the carrier-lined moved the apex court against this LAKHS OF DELHIITES EASIER. pond level is maintained at 674.5 feet channel (CLC, which in Delhi is called order though there has not been any OUR WATER TREATMENT A ‘cut’ made by DJB in Munak canal) and there is no stand- hearing since. Since Delhi’s require- WHAT 80MGD WATER MEANS FOR DELHI Dwarka in the Delhi part off. Delhi is demanding more water ment is increasing, other states PLANTS ARE ALL FUNCTIONAL Areas that will benefit from the 80MGD water: South, Southwest, of the Munak canal because of its increasing requirement should also share the burden of the West and Northwest Delhi Capacity AND THAT HAS HELPED US TIDE HARYANA VERSION: The cut and has also set up three more reser- national capital. DJB built water treatment plants to use the 80 MGD of water: to reach voirs to which Haryana is not under nearly should be plugged so that water OVER THIS SUMMER WITHOUT Dwarka in west Delhi: 40 MGD capacity is not diverted elsewhere obligation to supply. What is the impact of giving water to 40 lakh Delhi on Haryana? ANY MAJOR PROBLEM. Bawana in northwest Delhi: 20 MGD capacity residents DELHI VERSION: The cut was What is the Haryana government’s We have to give Delhi its share of SS YADAV, DJB CEO Okhla in south Delhi: 20 MGD capacity plugged after objections objection? water and we are giving it, though While we supplied water to Delhi Jal Haryana itself is 40% water deficient. ■ *MGD: MILLION GALLONS A DAY. 1 MGD = 3785411.8 LITRES Keeping track of water spotcheck: Munak released by Haryana: DJB At ground zero, water flows quietly amid row Mallica Joshi ■ [email protected] Abhinav Rajput ing in the Delhi sub-branch canal, which ■ [email protected] runs parallel to the CLC, he said: “In NEW DELHI: A dialogue between the gov- the past one month, it has been between ernments of Haryana and Delhi, accord- MUNAK (KARNAL): Two children, aged 16 17,000 and 18,000 cusecs. It entirely ing to Delhi Jal Board (DJB) officials, is and 18 years, take position and plunge depends on the demand and the instruc- the only way to now deal with the Munak into the water right next to a signpost tions we get from senior authorities of Canal issue. that clearly prohibits diving. the state. It could even be stopped.” With the matter already being heard After spending half an hour in the As one moves further, there are in the Delhi High Court, which ordered Munak Canal, they come out and say: boards with instructions that the canal that a flow of 719 cusecs has to be main- “If we stop the water from here, your water should not be used for bathing tained in the canal, dialogue is the only city (Delhi) will die of thirst.” purposes but people use it to even clean tool available if something goes wrong. Even children in the area around their buffaloes. There are at least seven “This water is very important for ■ Kapil Mishra, DJB chairman Munak in Haryana know what the canal such points from Karnal to Bawana. Delhi as it is serving the very basic needs water means to Delhi. The problem gets worse when the of nearly 40 lakh people. We don’t want and irrigation department in Haryana The canal has been a sore point water reaches Delhi through the Delhi to fight with any state.