Delhi may face water crisis with closure of upper Ganga canal

HARIDWAR

: With the

Uttar Pradesh irrigation

department planning to close the upper

Ganga

canal for its yearly maintenance work, from Wednesday night till Diwali, several parts of UP as well as Delhi is likely to face shortage of drinking water in the festive season.

The national capital gets around 500 cusecs of water from the 500 km long canal, which stretches from Haridwar to Kanpur. It is also one of the main sources of water for irrigation purposes in the western UP.

“We have to close it because maintenance work of the canal is compulsory. Farmers too are not in need of much water at this time. Around 500 cusecs water is released to Delhi for drinking purposes from this canal. We have already informed authorities in the capital city,” said Vikrant Kumar, sub-divisional officer, UP irrigation department. M S Nawaz