Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena of Delhi said on Friday that the AAP government’s “mismanagement” was to blame for the water crisis in the nation’s capital and that it has become the government’s practice to place the blame for its “inability,” “inefficiency,” and “inaction” on others.
Mr. Saxena criticised the administration for blaming other states for the current state of affairs while reciting a 200-year-old couplet by Mirza Ghalib, “Umar bhar Ghalib yehi bhool karta raha dhool chehre par thi aur aaina saaf karta raha,” in a video statement.
He also said that despite “thousands of crores of rupees being spent by the Delhi government in the last 10 years, old pipelines could neither be repaired nor replaced” .
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti, who is also the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) vice-chairman, alleged this is “BJP made water crisis”.
“I am in a meditation camp but forced to resort to X to make aware one and all that as VC, @DelhiJalBoard I requested Honble @LtGovDelhi many a times to speak to and facilitate with BJP governments of UP and Haryana to barter 140 MGD treated affluent of Okhla STP with UP and 80 MGD treated affluent of Ruthala STPs with Haryana for equivalent raw water for our WTPs but Honble LG laughed it off. At present UP as well as Haryana rather than giving treated affluent for agricultural purposes give Ganga and Yamuna water to farmers. Farmers prefer treated affluent than raw water for better agricultural output. I say this with complete responsibility that HLG ignored all my requests and pushed Delhi to face this BJP made water crisis. I am all willing to debate with Honble LG if he disagrees,” he wrote on X.
Delhi is facing an acute water shortage, with the AAP government accusing Haryana of not releasing the national capital’s share of water.
The BJP, on the other hand, has blamed the AAP government for the water crisis and claimed that Haryana is supplying the city 1,049 cusecs of water from the Yamuna that exceeds the agreed-upon quantity.
“From the last few days, the extremely irresponsible attitude of Delhi government is being witnessed. Today in Delhi, women, children, elderly and young men are seen risking their lives and running after tankers for a bucket of water,” said Mr Saxena.
“Perhaps no one would have imagined that such heart-wrenching scenes would be seen in the country’s capital. But the government is blaming other states for its failures,” he added.
The water crisis has become too real to ignore in Delhi as people across areas are being seen scrambling with empty buckets to water tankers, some even jumping the queue to get to the top of them to fill their vessel.
“I regret to say that in the last 10 years, to hide its inefficiency, inaction and inability, it has become the habit of the Delhi government to blame others for its every failure and avoid their responsibilities and keep misleading the public through social media, press conferences and by filing court cases,” said Mr Saxena.
“This shortage of water in Delhi is solely the result of mismanagement by the government,” he added.
The Lt Governor said the chief minister’s “promise of 24-hour water supply in Delhi has so far proved to be an illusion” and asserted that Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are continuously giving their fixed quota of water to Delhi.
“Despite this, the biggest reason for the severe water shortage in Delhi today is that 54 per cent of the water being produced remains unaccounted for. Forty per cent of water is wasted during supply due to old and dilapidated pipelines,” he added.
Delhi Water Minister Atishi has alleged that Yamuna water level at Wazirabad has dropped from 674 feet to 670.3 feet and accused the BJP-led Haryana government of not releasing water.
However, Saxena said the Wazirabad treatment plant is not able to function at its full capacity because the reservoir of the barrage, where the water coming from Haryana is stored, is almost completely filled with silt.
“Due to this, the capacity of this reservoir, which used to be 250 million gallons, has reduced to only 16 million gallons. Till 2013, it was cleaned and desilted every year. But in the last 10 years, it was not cleaned even once and every year others were blamed for the lack of water. I myself had written a letter to the chief minister on this matter last year,” he recalled.
Despite thousands of crores of rupees being spent by the Delhi government in the last ten years, old pipelines could neither be repaired nor replaced, nor were adequate new pipelines laid, he added.
“The extent is such that this water is stolen and sold to the poor people by the tanker mafia,” said Mr Saxena.
“It is really regrettable that, whereas 550 litres of water are provided per person per day on average in Delhi’s wealthy suburbs, just 15 litres are provided per person per day on average in the rural and slums. I’ve been informed that, aside from Wazirabad, all of Delhi’s water treatment facilities are currently producing more water than they can handle,” he continued.
According to sources on Friday, the Delhi administration has petitioned the Supreme Court to order Haryana to provide more water to the nation’s capital, which is now experiencing a crisis.
