Delhi water crisis: Supreme Court directs Himachal Pradesh to release 137 cusecs of water to Hathni Kund Barrage

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, June 6

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Himachal Pradesh Government to release 137 cusecs of its surplus water to Hathni Kund Barrage for its onward supply to Delhi to enable it to deal with peak summer water crisis.

“Since the State of Himachal Pradesh has no objection and is ready and willing to release the surplus drinking water available with it, we direct that the State of Himachal Pradesh shall release 137 Cusecs of surplus drinking water available with it from the upstream so that the water reaches Hathni Kund Barrage and reaches Delhi through Wazirabad Barrage,” a Vacation Bench led by Justice PK Mishra said.

Terming it “an existential problem” for Delhi, the Bench – which also included Justice KV Viswanathan — directed the Haryana Government to facilitate further release of the water received from Himachal Pradesh at Hathni Kund Barrage to Wazirabad Barrage to save the national capital from acute water shortage.

“Considering the urgency in the matter, we direct the State of Himachal Pradesh to release the surplus drinking water by tomorrow i.e. on 07th June, 2024 with prior intimation to the Haryana Government,” it said.

The Bench directed the Upper Yamuna River Board to measure the excess water received at Hathnikund Barrage from Himachal Pradesh for its onward supply to Wazirabad with the assistance of the State of Haryana.

The top court asked the governments of Delhi, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to file compliance affidavits by Monday.

Noting that there should be no politics over the water crisis in Delhi, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing on June 10.

It asked the Delhi government to ensure that there was no wastage of water in the national capital.

“We are conscious of the fact that due to the acute water shortage, there should be no wastage of water by the Delhi Government for which it should adopt the measures suggested by the Upper Yamuna River Board,” the Bench said.

The order came on a petition filed by the Delhi government seeking a direction to Haryana government to release surplus water provided by Himachal Pradesh to deal with the water crisis in the national capital after Himachal Pradesh Government counsel Vaibhav Srivastava said the State of Himachal Pradesh was ready to release 137 cusecs surplus water.

On June 3, the top court had asked Centre to convene a meeting of Upper Yamuna River Board with all the stakeholders on June 5 and inform it of the measures suggested to tackle the situation.

On Wednesday, the Bench was apprised of the discussions that took place in the meeting.

On behalf of the Delhi government, senior counsel AM Singhvi told the Bench that Himachal Pradesh government has agreed to release surplus water to Delhi during June and Haryana should simply facilitate its further release for use of Delhi during peak summer.

The Board was of the tentative view that Delhi needs approximately 150 cusecs of additional drinking water to deal with the shortage of drinking water in view of the ongoing heat wave condition.

“The Board asked the Delhi Government to send a formal request to the State of Haryana for consideration to release 150 cusec of additional water on humanitarian grounds up till 30th June 2024 or onset of monsoon, whichever is earlier,” Singhvi said, adding the Haryana Government hasn’t responded to the request made by the Delhi Government.

However, Haryana Senior Additional Advocate General Lokesh Sinhal disputed Delhi Government’s claim that a surplus share of water of the State of Himachal Pradesh was available. He said the issue was still pending before the Upper Yamuna River Board. He said Haryana was also facing a similar heat wave condition and water crisis.

According to the minutes of the Board’s June 5 meeting, Haryana has been releasing 1050 cusecs of water to Delhi which was more than the agreed quantity since the supply was in compliance of the February 29, 1996 order, and the same was not disputed by Delhi.

Regarding actualisation of MoU dated December 20, 2019 between Delhi and Himachal Pradesh, the Board observed that “The data was supplied by the State of HP regarding its unutilised share of water. Other States sought time to analyse the said data and it was decided that matter will be discussed in detail after views from other States are received. It was also agreed that bilateral MoU has long term implications and its impact may not be relevant to the present crisis.”

The Delhi Government agreed that such an arrangement shall not be treated as precedence in future.