Noida: With desilting work about to end, Ganga water supply to be restored from Monday 

NOIDA: As the Uttar Pradesh government’s irrigation department is about to complete the desilting work on Ganga water canal that supplies drinking water to Noida and other cities, the Noida authority is set to resume the Ganga water supply on Monday.

The irrigation department and the Noida authority failed to restore the supply on the eve of Diwali, but now they want to deliver it before Chhath festival during which the devotees offer prayers in rivers or other water bodies. The irrigation department is also releasing at least 700 cusec Ganga water from Upper Ganga canal into Hindon River from Meerut division to clean water in Yamuna and Hindon so that devotees on Chhat get better water during prayers, said officials.

The Hindon river that originates from Sahranpur’s Pur-Ka-Tanda and merges with Yamuna at Noida’s Monathal village. Hindon is also connected with Yamuna’s upstream near Okhla through Shahdara drain.

“We are releasing the Ganga water into Hindon so that it gets cleaned and also helps Yamuna water get better for Chhath. We have started releasing the water on Sunday and it will be continued even after Chhath,” said BK Singh, executive engineer of the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department.

Due to a month-long cleaning work the Noida authority was not getting the Ganga water supply and using the ground water for their drinking usage in all residential areas of the city, said officials.

The irrigation department started the annual desilting of Upper Ganga canal on October 12 and had stopped the Ganga water supply to Noida that gets 240 million litre daily Ganga water from this canal via a reservoir located in Ghaziabad’s Sidharth Vihar area. With the Ganga water supply disruption the residents face the quality issue with the drinking water as the authority manages to supply only the groundwater that is salty and not fit for drinking, said officials.

“We have completed desilting work partially in the Ganga canal and now the remaining work of cleaning is underway at the upper part of the canal. On Sunday we started releasing the water into the Ganga canal that delivers the supply to Noida. We have a target to restore a complete supply of 240 MLD on Monday as we have already started releasing the water for Noida,” said BK Singh, executive engineer of the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department that controls the canal and other water resources.

Currently, the total demand for water in Noida is 332 million litres per day (MLD). The authority is supplying 240 MLD Ganga water to residents and the remaining is procured through groundwater resources. In the absence of Ganga water supply the authority manages the drinking water needs only through the ground water resources thereby witnessing issues including low water pressure in old sectors, and quality issues.

The authority supplies 70% Ganga water and 30% groundwater in most of the areas across the city.

The authority is supplying water over 100 residential areas and in future it aims to provide Ganga water supply to remaining around 50 residential areas once it will start getting more quantity of Ganga water by end of 2024.

The authority is yet to start Ganga water supply to sectors 94, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135, 150 and 151, among others— areas which are located between Yamuna embankment road and the Noida Expressway.

Every year, during these months, the irrigation department cleans the canal and restores Ganga water supply after the work gets over.

“We have started receiving Ganga water supply on Sunday and we hope that the smooth supply of the Ganga water will resume to full capacity of 240 MLD on Monday afternoon. This season unlike previous years when it used to take a month the Ganga water supply got affected only for 16-17 days. The irrigation department has restored the supply only in 17 days time unlike in 2023 when it took a month,” said RP Singh, deputy general manager of the Noida authority heading the water department.

“Since Ganga water supply stopped, old residential areas witnessed water supply issues such as lower water pressure. Also, there are issues of muddy water because the authority procures ground water via tube wells and at times sand gets mixed with water. Old sectors such as sector 12, 15, 19, 20, 25, 27, 28 and 34 among others faced low water pressure,” said NP Singh, president of Gautam Budh Nagar district development residents’ welfare association (DDRWA), a residents’ group.