Delhi Water Crisis: Long Queues Continue Near Tankers Across Capital As Atishi's Hunger Strike Enters Day 2 | Updates

Amid the scorching heat, residents in several areas of Delhi continue to face severe water shortages, with people lining up in queues to collect water from tankers. Areas such as Chilla Gaon in Mayur Vihar, Sanjay Colony in Okhla, and Geeta Colony have particularly witnessed severe water shortages.

According to Delhi Water Minister Atishi, over 28,000 people in the national capital “won’t get water today” as the city received a decreased supply of over 100 million gallons per day (MGD) from Haryana.

Atishi, who is sitting on an indefinite hunger strike in south Delhi’s Bhogal, said she will continue to fast till 28 lakh people of Delhi do not get their share of water from Haryana.

“Delhi needs a total of 1005 MGD water, out of which 613 MGD is sourced from Haryana. Over the past few weeks, this supply has significantly decreased, with only 513 MGD water being released… One MGD of water serves 28,500 people, so if Haryana is giving 100 MGD less water, over 28 lakh people are not receiving water per day,” she said in a video message on X.

The Minister further said that on Friday, Haryana sent 110 MGD less water to Delhi. “This means more than 28 lakh people won’t get water today,” she said.

“I made every possible effort to secure Delhi’s rightful share of water, but Haryana’s BJP govt didn’t comply. I had no other option but to sit on the indefinite strike,” she added.

Atishi began her indefinite hunger strike on Friday to press on her demand for more water from Haryana.

Delhi is facing an unprecedented heatwave as a result the water demand has increased. The issues of water theft and the role of private tankers in aggravating the water crisis have seen the BJP and the AAP taking potshots at each other.

Amid the ongoing blame game, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini recently refuted accusations of any discrimination against the national Capital in terms of water supply and blamed the crisis on the “inept and inefficient” AAP government.

Claiming that the Haryana government was releasing more water than earlier for the National Capital, CM Saini said the crisis was the result of the Delhi government’s “failure” to build a system of water distribution despite 10 years of being in power.

“In the past 10 years, they did not build any mechanism for water distribution to city residents,” he said.