The ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) traded allegations and counter-allegations on Monday in the wake of water crisis in Delhi due to high levels of ammonia in the Yamuna river.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has decided to rationalize the supply as the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant is producing 25-50 per cent less water due to high ammonia levels in the Yamuna. A five to 10 percent reduction in water supply from other treatment plants has been announced until the situation improves.
Senior AAP leader and Delhi minister Saurabh Bhardwaj accused the BJP government in neighboring Haryana of contributing to the crisis by allowing uncontrolled dumping of toxic industrial waste into the Yamuna river.
Addressing a press conference, Bhardwaj said ammonia levels in the river have risen to dangerously high levels, affecting the operations of the Wazirabad Water Treatment Plant (WTP), which is now operating at half its capacity. .
The AAP leader then criticized the BJP’s inaction on the issue and questioned what steps the Haryana government has taken in the last decade to deal with the pollution coming from Panipat and Sonipat areas.
Hitting back at the AAP leader, BJP’s Delhi unit general secretary and Lok Sabha member Yogendra Chandolia dismissed the claims as “false” and “misleading”.
Chandolia claimed that the water coming to Delhi from Haryana, especially in Palla, complies with statutory norms and is clean.
The BJP leader also claimed that the water storage pond of Wazirabad WTP is filled with sand, leading to increased ammonia levels. He said, ‘If Delhi’s water treatment plants are unable to control ammonia levels, it is because the AAP government has failed to upgrade the plants.’
