Agra faces acute water shortage
Vijay Upadhyay
Agra. The water crisis in Agra that had begun in the late summer months aggravated last week. Water supply to most of the city was shut down by the water works following discovery of huge volumes of pollutants in water storage tanks of the city.
Though the supply of water was partially resumed on Saturday, most of the city still remained affected with lack of drinking water. Meanwhile the water works officials are in no mood to declare water as 'safe'. They advised the consumers to treat the water before it was used for drinking. According to the latest test reports conducted on the Yamuna water, it contained less than 4 part per million (ppm) of dissolved oxygen, which incidentally had caused the death of thousands of fish in the river on Friday.
Talking to The Pioneer, Jawahar Ram, General Manager, Agra Water Works said that the problems faced by Agra in terms of water supply were quite severe compared to other cities located in the upstream as this city was entirely dependent on the Yamuna river for the 250 million litres of water supply that it required every day. But instead of water, the city's population was receiving treated industrial waste and sewage of Delhi and Haryana, he said.
He said that the water supply in Yamuna at Agra was controlled by the Gokul barrage, which released a huge volume of polluted water between October 26 and 30 into the river on Friday, which was at least 20-30 times higher than the usual volume.
While testing this water pumped into the storage tanks, it was found that the dissolved oxygen was almost nil while the volume of pollutants was too high. As a result, he said, the water supply to the city was cut off completely. Also he said the gigantic storage tanks of the water works at Jeoni Mandi had to be emptied before they could be readied to refill treated water.
Agra. The water crisis in Agra that had begun in the late summer months aggravated last week. Water supply to most of the city was shut down by the water works following discovery of huge volumes of pollutants in water storage tanks of the city.
Though the supply of water was partially resumed on Saturday, most of the city still remained affected with lack of drinking water. Meanwhile the water works officials are in no mood to declare water as 'safe'. They advised the consumers to treat the water before it was used for drinking. According to the latest test reports conducted on the Yamuna water, it contained less than 4 part per million (ppm) of dissolved oxygen, which incidentally had caused the death of thousands of fish in the river on Friday.
Talking to The Pioneer, Jawahar Ram, General Manager, Agra Water Works said that the problems faced by Agra in terms of water supply were quite severe compared to other cities located in the upstream as this city was entirely dependent on the Yamuna river for the 250 million litres of water supply that it required every day. But instead of water, the city's population was receiving treated industrial waste and sewage of Delhi and Haryana, he said.
He said that the water supply in Yamuna at Agra was controlled by the Gokul barrage, which released a huge volume of polluted water between October 26 and 30 into the river on Friday, which was at least 20-30 times higher than the usual volume.
While testing this water pumped into the storage tanks, it was found that the dissolved oxygen was almost nil while the volume of pollutants was too high. As a result, he said, the water supply to the city was cut off completely. Also he said the gigantic storage tanks of the water works at Jeoni Mandi had to be emptied before they could be readied to refill treated water.
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