Order of the Supreme Court regarding allocation of more water to Delhi from Haryana, 07/05/2021

• 07/05/2021

Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of 'In Re: Remediation of polluted rivers' dated 07/05/2021. The petition was filed by the Delhi Jal Board seeking a direction to the state of Haryana to ensure enough water supply to maintain the level of water at Wazirabad pond at 674.50 feet.

The SC had appointed a Committee headed by the Secretary, Ministry of Jal Shakti to conduct an inspection and submit a report on the quality and quantity of water released from the state of Haryana at Palla, the level of the Wazirabad pond and whether the Delhi government was diverting its water to the water treatment plants at Okhla, Wazirabad 1, 2 and 3 and Chandrawal before the water reaches the Wazirabad pond.

In response the Committee submitted a report.

Some of the observations of the Committee report were the following:

• Water quality of Yamuna river at Palla site was good to support aquatic life.  
• Haryana is releasing more than 1050 cusecs of water from Munak headworks to Delhi against their share of 719 cusecs, thus providing Yamuna water to Delhi as per Upper Yamuna River Board (UYRB) allocation.
• Both the States, Haryana and Delhi need to take action to control pollution in the Yamuna River. Haryana need to control pollution from Panipat and Sonipat areas while Delhi need to control pollution from Palla – Wazirabad stretch (separate discharge).
• The quality of water needs to be monitored regularly at Delhi- Haryana border by a Central agency for which Department of Water Resources, RD & GR, Ministry of Jal Shakti proposes to make the arrangements.

The Committee has noted in the report that the allocation of Yamuna water amongst the States of Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and Rajasthan is done by the Upper Yamuna River Board.

The SC noted that the Committee report has said that Haryana was releasing more than 1050 cusec of water from Munak headwork to Delhi and asked the Delhi Jal Board to approach the Upper Yamuna River Board to seek allocation of more water to meet the exigency of acute shortage of drinking water in Delhi. 

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