Canal dries up, no water for southern Haryana

A day after the Hooda government denied Delhi's appeal to release water more water in the Yamuna, Haryana's water-starved southern region has knocked its doors to meet the shortage in parts of Mahendergarh, Jhajjar, Rewari and Bhiwani.

The reason: The Narnaul canal, which provides water to these areas, has dried up because its flow was stopped thrice owing to drowning incidents and extreme weather conditions. This has come as a shocker to the cluster of nearly 400 villages, which depended on the Narnaul for their potable and irrigation supply.

Mahendergarh Deputy Commissioner Saket Kumar has written to the financial commissioner (Irrigation) urging him to urgently release water to these areas. "As the water flow was stopped for three days, the area is reeling under severe shortage. The situation has worsened in the region, which is water-starved. This time, only 280 cusec of water is flowing. Moreover, the Jawaharlal Nehru canal has not received enough water," said Kumar.

The DC has also urged the financial commissioner to continue water supply till June 25, instead of June 17 due to extensive heat conditions.

The crisis has led to dried up fields and taps in households. Since there is no adequate water supply, water tanks are empty, affecting supply to residential areas.

The situation is worse in villages, where the shortage has led to ponds drying up. "Virtually no water is left for the cattle and they have taken ill due to dehydration. Though other sources of water supply are not safe, the people have no alternative but to use such water, said an officer.

"While we need 1000 cusec water for a fortnight, recently the supply has dropped to less than one third. We are not even getting our normal quota of water, leave alone getting additional water," said O P Sharma, Superintending Engineer (Irrigation), Mahendergarh. "We get our water share from the Yamuna river. We hope that soon, water will be released to tackle the scenario to some extent," he added.

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