: A dip in the water level at Tehri dam in Uttarakhand could hit supply in the Capital this summer, even though the Delhi Jal Board says it is ready for the hot months ahead.
Delhi Jal Board chairperson Kapil Mishra, who announced the annual Summer Action Plan on Tuesday, said “Our supply has not been affected so far, though the level at Tehri has fallen. We are looking at the possible ramifications of this development. We have called a review meeting on Thursday.”
The dam on Bhagirathi river, which is a headstream of the Ganges, gives Delhi about 470 cusecs of water through the Upper Ganga Canal. Of the 900 million gallons per day of treated water supplied by the DJB, 247MGD is from the Upper Ganga Canal – that is 27 per cent of the supply.
Mr. Mishra said the DJB’s target for the peak summer was to maintain supply at 900MGD.
“We have increased our raw water by adding 12 new tubewells at Palla. In addition, the Dwarka treatment plant is working at its capacity of 40MGD. We are better prepared to face this summer,” said Mr. Mishra.
This time round, there were consultations with all 70 MLAs and citizen representatives like RWAs to identify the problems. Mr. Mishra said the plan was more detailed than previous years.
In addition to the Summer Action Plan, the DJB also brought out a telephone directory that has numbers of all emergency contacts.
Apart from an increase in demand, the DJB also has to contend with increased ammonia levels that prevent treatment plants from working. Now, the DJB has set up a system to divert the raw water directly to the Wazirabad plant, instead of the Wazirabad pond, where pollutants make it unusable.
