With Bhagirathi water treatment plant working at its full capacity, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has overcome the problem of water supply which got affected in Delhi due to the natural calamity in Uttarakhand.
DJB vice-chairperson Raghav Chadha on Monday said that Bhagirathi water treatment plant is now working 100 per cent while Sonia Vihar plant is working at 80 per cent of capacity.
Water quality is measured in nephelometric turbidity units (NTU) which have reached 8000 and it is supposed to stay at 100. To deal with the situation, the DJB shut down the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant and also the Bhagirathi water treatment plant. “The production capacity of these plants has been brought down to deal with the situation. These plants together provide around 250 MGD water per day," he said.
Chadha said that CM Arvind Kejriwal has directed to provide clean water to the people of Delhi as soon as possible by cleaning up the dirt of the Upper Ganga Canal, DJB is working day and night to provide adequate clean water to the people.
“We had to reduce water production of Bhagirathi and Sonia Vihar water treatment plants due to massive dirt in the water; the NTU became 8000 which is supposed to be at 100. He said that the Sonia Vihar and Bhagirathi Water Treatment Plant's production capacity was severely reduced due to high level of dirt in the water, due to which water supply was affected in areas of south, east and North East Delhi. Bhagirathi treatment plant, NTU has been reduced from 8000 to 960 and Sonia Vihar 8200 NTU has been brought down to 1000 NTU.
The vice-chairman further said, "We treat the raw Ganges water which comes from the Upper Ganga Canal at Muradnagar and provides it to the citizens of Delhi but due to the recent natural calamity in the Uttarakhand, the quality of water has worsened. The water which we are getting is of very poor quality as it has a lot of dirt and other particles."
"The Sonia Vihar water treatment plant produces around 140 MGD water per day. But due to the dot in the water, only 40 per cent production was happening in this plant. There also we have brought down the NTU lower than 1000. The plant is still running with 80 per cent capacity. I hope that by the evening, Sonia Vihar plant will start working with 100 percent capacity,” he said.