Amid the threat of water shortage in the national capital due to proposed repair works of the Bhakra Nangal Canal, the water supply will continue to its full capacity in coming days, a senior official in Delhi Jal Board (DJB) told IANS on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Friday has directed to maintain ‘status quo’ in supply of water to Delhi till April 6.
The official said that raw water supply from Punjab through the Bhakra Nangal Canal to Delhi was continuing till Friday. However, the relaxation has come after the intervention of the Supreme Court. On Thursday, hearing a DJB’s plea, the top court had directed to maintain a status quo in supply of water to Delhi till Friday.
Replying to IANS on whether DJB has received any official communication from the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB), a senior DJB official said, “We are commutating with BBMB regularly and have learned that they are preparing for an estimated cost required for repair work. After the Supreme Court’s intervention, we are hopeful that BBMB will continue to supply raw water to Delhi and will postpone repair work. Delhi has received a full water supply from Punjab till Friday morning.”
The BBMB, a Central government agency, provides 232 million gallons per day (MGD) of raw water to Delhi from the Ravi and Beas rivers, which is around 25 per cent of its total water supply. It had last month announced that repair works of canal will be carried out between March 25 to April 24, and therefore raw water supply to Delhi will remain affected.
The DJB, however, like in the past approached the Supreme Court to seek its intervention in the matter and got a much needed relief.
The threat of depletion in the water supply has led to panic which has been added by the fact that the DJB has no emergency plans to increase raw water supply from other resources, as IANS was told earlier. DJB vice chairman Raghav Chadha had said that DJB lacked any other emergency resource of water but they will knock every possible door to meet the requirement of water during the summer.