Parts of Delhi go without water again, relief on Thursday
By IANSWednesday, February 16, 2011
NEW DELHI - Parts of the national capital suffered an acute water crunch for the third consecutive day Wednesday as supply remained affected due to high level of ammonia in the Yamuna waters. However, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said the supply would be normalised by Thursday.
The water supply was hit in north, northwest, central and parts of west and south Delhi as two water treatment plants at Wazirabad and Chandrawal were not functional.
The DJB said the water supply would be normalised to a large extent by Thursday as 70 percent of their two water treatment plants have started operating.
“To minimise the hardship being faced by the citizens of Delhi, 70 percent water production has been restarted at our two plants in Wazirabad and Chandrawal (north Delhi),” a DJB official said.
However, the water should not be used for drinking purposes. If it’s necessary, the water must be boiled in order to render it portable, the official stressed.
“We are continuing to closely monitor the situation and deeply regret the inconvenience being caused to the residents,” the official added.
The news obviously came as a relief to Delhiites who have for the last three days found it tough to sustain their daily chores because of water shortage.
“I would keep my fingers crossed till tomorrow (Thursday) morning. The crunch forced us to wash our utensils with mineral water. The situation could have been handled better had the government been more alert,” said Komal Adlakha, a housewife in Rajendra Nagar in central Delhi.
The national capital faced severe water shortage since Monday as the supply was affected due to a high level of ammonia in the Yamuna river water.
According to a DJB official, the level of ammonia in water was 1 part per million (ppm) till Wednesday morning, which is above the permissible 0.6 ppm. The situation had quite improved by evening.
The problem resulted from indiscriminate industrial and domestic waste discharge into the Yamuna from Panipat in Haryana, resulting in the rise of ammonia level in water to 1.4 part per million (ppm).
