Delhi water crisis: Atishi meets CM Arvind Kejriwal in jail, directs officials to plug leaks

NEW DELHI: Amidst a severe water crisis affecting several parts of Delhi, water minister Atishi met chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in jail on Thursday and briefed him about the situation on ground and efforts being made by govt to tide over it.
Earlier, the minister, along with the officials of Delhi Jal Board and the revenue department inspected the main pipeline network that carries water from Sonia Vihar treatment plant in northeast Delhi to various parts of south Delhi.During the inspection, Atishi directed the officials to increase the patrolling of the main water lines across the city and immediately plug the leakages found anywhere in the network.
Talking to reporters after meeting the chief minister, Atishi said Kejriwal took a report from her on the status of electricity and water supply in Delhi and issued directions to MLAs to work on ground to solve the water problem.
“He has instructed me that whatever steps are required to be taken to overcome the water shortage should be taken as soon as possible,” Atishi said. She was accompanied by Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha during her visit to Kejriwal in jail.
To prevent pilferage and distribution losses due to leakages, Atishi said several teams led by additional district magistrates and sub-divisional magistrates had started working on ground. She said no wastage of water would be tolerated. Teams of Delhi Police also conducted patrolling along Munak Canal, which brings raw water to Delhi, following reports that private tankers were lifting water illegally.
Atishi added that the current production of water in Delhi was down by 40-45 million gallon per day (MGD) due to shortage of supply and efforts were also being made to get additional water from Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.
Against the targeted supply of 1,000 MGD, the total production from nine water treatment plants and from ranney wells and tubewells on Thursday was 951.2 MGD, Delhi Jal Board stated in its daily bulletin.
DJB said that the production at the Bhagirathi plant was less due to lesser raw water received from Upper Ganga Canal. It added that the production at Wazirabad was also less, which was compounded by power failure at the Sonia Vihar plant for nearly 13 minutes at 1am.