Water supply in large parts of the national capital, including central and south Delhi, would be hit over the next two days at least due to high level of pollutants in the Yamuna.

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said it had to shut down its three water treatment plants (WTPs) after level of ammonia shot up in the Yamuna on Sunday.

“Due to discharge of high level of pollutants from Haryana in River Yamuna at Wazirabad, production of water at three WTPs – Wazirabad, Chandrawal and Okhla – had to be stopped. There would be no water in central Delhi, north Delhi, parts of south and west Delhi and the whole of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC),” said a statement issued by the DJB on Sunday.

The DJB has urged residents to store water and use it judiciously till conditions become normal. Water tankers would be available at 1916, 23527679, 23634469, and 1800117118.

While WTPs can treat up to 0.9 parts per million (ppm) of Ammonia, the level of Ammonia shot up to 1.4ppm on Sunday afternoon, the water utility said.

Dinesh Mohaniya, DJB vice chairman, said, “The situation had worsened in the early hours of Sunday when ammonia level had shot up to nearly 1.7ppm around 1am. Conditions, however, improved later during the day as the concentration of ammonia dropped. Water supply is likely to be restored by Monday morning as the WTPs are running but with reduced capacity.”

He said that out of the total 900 MGD of water that is produced every day by the water utility, there is only a shortage of 50-60 MGD, as the WTPs could not be operated on full capacity.

Residents, meanwhile, complained that they didn’t get adequate water supply on Sunday evening.

“Usually we receive water supply two times a day — morning and evening. On Sunday, however, even though the supply was normal in the morning hours, it was heavily curtailed in the evening. Usually we get 45 minutes of water supply. But on Sunday evening we got only just 10 minutes of supply,” said Sourav Chatterjee, a resident of CR Park in south Delhi.

This, however, is not the first time that water supply is being hit because of rising levels of ammonia in the river. “This happens almost every winter resulting in a blame game between the two states. A similar situation cropped up on November 20 this year too,” said a DJB official, who did not wish to be identified.

The official said that a lot of industrial waste is flowing down the Panipat dye drain, which in turn is pushing up pollution levels in the Yamuna.

“If situations do not improve we would have to approach the National Green Tribunal,” said a DJB official.

First Published: Dec 03, 2018 12:28 IST