Amid the national capital facing an unprecedented heatwave on Thursday, the AAP has accused the BJP ruled Haryana government of reducing the city’s water supply drastically while claiming that the city grappling with sweltering heat has seen a rise in its demand for water.

Quoting data, Delhi Water Minister Atishi highlighted that while Haryana is supposed to give Delhi 613 MGD of water, out of which 548 MGD comes from Munak canal and 65 comes through Wazirabad. However, on June 1, 488 MGD and 30 MGD came from Munal and Wazirabad respectively.

“One MGD of water caters to the daily requirement of 28,500 people. By reducing 100 MGD of Delhi's rightful share of water supply, the Haryana government is taking away the water from the homes of 28 lakhs people of Delhi. They are directly responsible for playing with the lives of the people of Delhi,” the senior AAP leader stated. She also said that Delhi's share of water has been constant at 1005 MGD since 1994, when its population was 1.1 crore. “However, Delhi's population has increased three times, the water supply is still the same,” she added.

Atishi said that while in 2019, Delhi government signed a MoU with the Himachal Pradesh government to procure an additional 50 MGD of water, but the Haryana Govt is not letting water from Himachal reach Delhi. “The proposal is pending with the Upper Yamuna River Board, where Haryana has raised unnecessary and false concerns like Himachal Pradesh does not have sufficient water,” she said.

On the accusations of water crisis being caused because of the leakage, she said, “To reduce the leakage of water while transmission of water from Haryana to Delhi, DJB has spent about Rs 500 Crores in constructing Carried Lined Channel (CLC), reducing water losses from 30 per cent to 5 per cent.” “To utilise the water that reaches Delhi effectively, 3,500 km of old pipelines have been replaced

(437 km annually) in the last eight years. To reduce illegal tappings and water theft, over 7,300 km of new pipelines have been laid in Delhi the last 10 years i.e. 730 km annually. Approximately 5,200 km of these new pipelines have been laid in unauthorised colonies and 2100 km in rural areas and urban villages,” Atishi claimed.