Delhi Water Minister Atishi on Wednesday said she has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to resolve the ongoing water crisis in the national capital, failing which she will sit on indefinite fast from Friday.
“Today, I have written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji and I have requested him that now the suffering of the people of Delhi is crossing all limits,” she said.
The minister claimed that the shortfall in water supply has rendered nearly 28 lakh people in Delhi waterless.
In her letter to the PM, Atishi highlighted the plight of Delhiites owing to the unprecedented heat wave and the steps taken by her to resolve the water crisis.
Addressing mediapersons here, Atishi said that currently the city was facing an extreme heat wave situation, where the maximum temperature is reaching up to 47 degrees C, while the night temperature is also on the higher side.
In such extreme heat, the need for water increases for every person, and in the present day scenario, residents of the city need more water, she said, adding that the city is rather dealing with a shortage of water this time.
“We have to understand that the total water supply in Delhi is 1,050 million gallons per day (MGD). Out of this 1,050 MGD water, 613 MGD comes to the Yamuna from Haryana. The amount of water that was supposed to come from Haryana on Tuesday, which was 613 MGD, has come down to 513 MGD,” she claimed.
The minister said this means Delhi is facing a water shortage of 100 MGD on Wednesday, which means that more than 28 lakh people are getting less water in Delhi, the minister claimed, adding that 1 MGD meets the daily requirement of 28,500 people.
Atishi also said the government made every possible effort to solve this problem for the people of Delhi, and added, “I wrote a letter to the Chief Minister of Haryana, but Haryana still did not give water. I spoke to the Chief Minister of Himachal, he said that he is ready to give water from Himachal but that water also has to come through Haryana; Haryana refused to give Himachal’s water as well,” she claimed.
She further said that ”the population of Delhi is 3 crore, and our allocated share of water is only 1,050 MGD”.
Three crore people live in Haryana but Haryana’s water allocation is 6,500 MGD, she claimed, adding that even if Haryana has to give 100 MGD water to Delhi, it will only amount to 1.5 per cent of its total share of water.
“Still, despite our every possible effort, the Haryana government is not giving water to Delhi. Now the suffering of the people of Delhi has crossed all limits, the people of Delhi are yearning for every drop of water. But still the Haryana government is not providing water to Delhi,” she claimed.