Ghaziabad: More than 20 lakh people in Ghaziabad and Noida who depend on Ganga water are likely to be affected when the irrigation department shuts Upper Ganga Canal for annual desilting from Oct 21 to Nov 25. In the city, Ganga water is supplied to trans-Hindon areas like Indirapuram, Vaishali, Kaushambi, Vasundhara, Siddharth Vihar, Pratap Vihar and delta colonies like Surya Nagar.“The annual desiltation exercise takes place between Vijaya Dashami and Diwali every year. This year, it will be done from Oct 21 to Nov 25,” an official from the irrigation department said. “After every monsoon, silt deposition in the Upper Ganga Canal exceeds 10,000 particles per minute. This inhibits the flow of water and so 195 km of the canal from Haridwar to Dasna needs to be desilted.”“This year we will also carry out additional work at Chhota Haridwar in Muradnagar where we plan to raise the canal floor by 50 cm along the bathing ghat to prevent incidents of drowning,” he added.UP Jal Nigam operates three water treatment plants supplied by the canal.UP Jal Nigam operates three water treatment plants: two at 120 MLD each and one producing 240 MLD of water. From one 120 MLD plant, GMC’s share is 60%, while the rest is allocated to Noida.In another 120 MLD plant, 80% of the water is for Noida and 20% for UP Housing Board. From the 240 MLD plant, 75% is allocated to Noida and the rest to the housing board.GMC has 372 MLD of water at its disposal, including Ganga water supply, while the demand is around 419 MLD. About 35% of the water is lost during supply due to leakages in the pipe network.A GMC official said, “To augment water supply in the affected areas, we have 70 big and 36 small borewells in the Vasundhara zone. In Indirapuram, we will supply water through 26 borewells. In areas where the water supply network is not there, we will deploy 64 water tankers to supply water.”GMC has a water network of about 2,600 km in the city, along with 51 overhead tanks and 27 underground water reservoirs where water is stored and supplied.The two available sources of water in the district are Ganga water and groundwater. While Ganga water is used for potable purposes because of its better water quality, it caters to less than 40% of the 48.6-lakh population of the city.
