Water shortage: Gurugram civic body appeals for judicious use

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has appealed to the city residents to use water judiciously for the next couple of weeks, as its two water treatment plants (WTPs) at Basai and Chandu Budhera are getting less raw water from Sonepat.

The GMDA sent messages to the city’s residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) on Sunday.

Lalit Arora, chief engineer GMDA, said, “The last couple of days, our WTP at Basai has received 100-110 cusecs raw water through Gurgaon Water Supply Canal (GWSC), against its normal supply of 140-150 cusecs. This has happened mainly because of two reasons — pilferage (water theft) and reducing water level in the Yamuna due to lack of rain.”

Both the WTPs are connected with Kakroi at Sonepat, located 70 kilometres from Basai and Chandu Budhera (in Gurugam). The GWSC feeds the Basai WTP while the NCR Channel feeds the Chandu Budhera WTP.

“The irrigation department of Haryana maintains both the canals or channels (GWSC and NCR Channel). We have held a meeting with the officials of irrigation department on Friday, who informed us that farmers are using raw water of the canals illegally by diverting it and also through motor pumps, to water their crops. They find it difficult to stop them and have sought police help. If the situation prevails, we will be having acute water storage shortage at our two plants,” said Arora, adding that he has informed the police, seeking strong vigilance of canals.

Currently, the GMDA is supplying 440 to 450 million gallons daily (MLD) to fulfil city’s daily water need. The authority’s two canals need a continuous flow of 250 to 270 cusecs of raw water.

“We supply 225-240 MLD water from the Basai plant daily and to maintain this supply, we keep a backup of raw water storage accordingly. This is crisis time and we are trying our best to resolve it timely. Meanwhile, we have sought the help of residents in using water judiciously,” said Rajesh Bansal, GMDA’s superintending engineer.

Raw Yamuna water reaches the two water treatment plants of Gurugram, crossing many villages in the districts of Jhajjar and Sonepat.

Vinay Dhull, executive engineer, NCR and GWS canals, irrigation department, said, “We have alerted the GMDA of the raw water crisis we are facing because of frequent theft in canals and no rain.”

The GMDA supplies water directly to private colonies, while it supplies water to sectors, old municipal colonies and villages through the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram.

Vijay Pal Singh, resident, DLF-3, said, “People wash cars using supply water. Many leave taps open after use and there are many ways water is being wasted daily. I wish the GMDA would impose a penalty for misuse of water. This is a perfect time.”

First Published: Jul 15, 2019 07:05 IST