Delhi Jal Board assures restoration of water supply by Sunday evening

As the water supply across several parts of Delhi came to halt on Saturday, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice-chairman Raghav Chadha on Sunday announced that the regular water supply will be restored by November 7 evening. Water supply in areas where it had dipped in the previous 24 hours, such as East, North East, and South Delhi, will return to normal by today evening, Chadha predicted. Following dialogue with the Haryana government, the DJB was able to address the situation of water supply and contamination, he added.

The Ganga canal closes for annual repair around Diwali and Dussehra, and this, along with rising pollution levels in the Yamuna, has led to substantial water supply disruptions, Chadha explained. The Ganga canal's maintenance is also complete, and water supplies from it will restart by Sunday evening to different parts of Delhi, according to Chadha.

Raghav Chadha assures water supply to be restored in Delhi by Sunday evening 

Furthermore, Chadha said that the DJB water treatment plants had to deal with Yamuna water released by Haryana, which was excessively polluted by the increased ammonia levels. He said that the water coming from Haryana contained excessive amounts of Ammonia. The water treatment plants are gradually treating the water to operate at the optimum levels and restoring the water supply, Chadha asserted.

Ammonia levels up to 1 part per million (ppm) can only be treated in water treatment plants, but the levels had grown to 3 ppm this time, Chadha noted. He claimed that production at the Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi water treatment facilities had dropped by roughly 50%, and that production at the Wazirabad and Chandrawal treatment plants had also been hampered because water could no longer be cleaned totally in one go. The ammonia levels of water at treatment plants had dropped to roughly 0.9 ppm on Sunday morning.

Apart from this, a week ago, Delhi Water Minister Satyendra Jain and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) planned to give domestic water connections to all consumers, including the installation of water pipelines and metres at consumers' homes. According to an official statement, the decision was made to resolve complaints of water contamination, eliminate unauthorised connections, and increase the number of working metres in the DJB network.

Image: ANI