The Supreme Court on Monday asked why a joint meeting cannot be held between Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi government and other stakeholders with a non-adversarial approach to solve the water crisis faced by the national capital. The top court directed an urgent meeting of Upper Yamuna River Board on June 5 to address the issues so that the problem of scarcity of water in Delhi can be properly addressed.
The vacation bench of Justice P K Mishra and K V Viswanthan further directed the matter to be listed on Thursday and sought the minutes of the meeting of the river board and status report on the same.
The Supreme Court was hearing the petition moved by the Delhi government seeking a direction to Haryana government to release surplus water provided by Himachal Pradesh to the national capital to mitigate its ongoing water crisis.
Himachal Pradesh told the top court that it is ready to give its excess water to the Delhi through canals bringing water to Delhi through Haryana.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi appeared for Delhi government. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for Haryana government and Centre.
Counsel appearing for Himachal Pradesh said that they are willing to provide Delhi the required water from its excess water. However, SG Mehta said that Himachal government will have to give numbers on the surplus water it claims to have to the Yammuna River Board before the water is allowed by Haryana governmnt through the Wazirabad barrage.
Mehta told the top court that numbers suggest that if 100 liters comes to Delhi, the residents get 48 liters, whereas 52 liters of water is wasted in leakage, tanker mafia and theft by industries.
Delhi's Water Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi moved the top court and made PM Modi led Central government, the BJP-led Haryana government and the Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh government parties to the petition.
The AAP government tells the apex court that due to increased demand, the water levels at the Wazirabad barrage have critically reduced. And to meet the demand it has made an arrangement with the Congress led government in Himachal Pradesh to release the required water. However, for that water to come from Himachal, Haryana will have to release the water as it shares boundary with NCT and water that comes from Haryana goes to Wazirabad tank which is facing shortage.
The plea stated that water levels in the Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi barrages, which are other primary sources of water for the national capital, are operating at their optimum level and meet the stipulated standards. The plea further said that this request is a stop-gap measure to address the current crisis until the monsoon arrives.
Water Crisis In Delhi
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has been struggling to keep up with its target of 1,000 million gallons a day (MGD) when according to estimates in Delhi’s Economic Survey, the national capital needs roughly 1,290MGD per day.
The main reason for this shortage has been attributed to low water levels in the Yamuna River and increased demand in the summers.
According to DJB, the low river level has led to a deficit of 10-30 MGD in Delhi's water supply. This shortage has been accelerated by power outages at water treatment plants and high turbidity in the Upper Ganga Canal.
Earlier this week, Delhi water minister Atishi issued an order stating that wastage of water by anyone shall attract a fine of Rs.2000/-. In addition, 200 teams were deployed to crackdown upon (i) washing of cars with pipes (ii) overflow of water tanks, and (iii) use of domestic water supply for construction or commercial purposes.
On May 30 and May 31, Delhi's Water Minister Atishi wrote to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath requesting additional release of water to Delhi for a period of one month. Notably, the Delhi government, has accused Haryana of not releasing Delhi's share of water since May 1.
In her May 30 letter Atishi said Delhi is facing an "unprecedented water crisis" situation. She wrote that Delhi is heavily dependent on water from the Yamuna River to meet its day-to-day demand for water.
She further highlighted that the water level at the Wazirabad Barrage was 670.3 feet as against the normal of 674.50 feet.