Delhi to roll-out 3 tier plan to eradicate water crisis

NEW DELHI: Delhi Government in its annual budgetary proposal on February 26, announced that it will roll-out a three tier plan to make the city self-reliant in water supply within three years. Delhi currently falls short of 225 million gallons per day (MGD) of water and faces repeated water crisis.

Delhi government’s three tier plan involves building underground reservoirs to store rainwater, converting 1000 acers area at Palla (near Delhi-Haryana border) into a storage point for tapping additional Yamuna water during monsoon and creating decentralised sewage treatment plants to augment water supply as well as recharge groundwater.

Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi said that consultants will be appointed for construction of the mega-reservoir at Palla and rejuvenation of canals and Najafgarh, Supplementary, Shahdara, and associate drain.

In budgetary proposal of the Delhi government, an amount of Rs 100 crore has already been allocated for rejuvenation of three major drains by irrigation and flood control department, whereas, Rs 25 crore would be spent on beautification of ponds.

For increase of supply, a new water treatment plant with a capacity of 50 MGD has been proposed at Dwarka. Raw water for the plant would be arranged by taking the treated water from the 70 MGD Coronation Pillar STP to the Wazirabad pond. Other projects include a water treatment plant of capacity 120 MGD at Wazirabad to be built at a cost of Rs 2,200 crore