Is Haryana ‘poisoning’ Delhi waters? A long-running Yamuna story

Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini demanded an apology from Kejriwal, threatening him with a defamation suit if that didn’t happen. “Kejriwal has insulted the land where he was born… The people of Haryana consider Yamuna a holy river and worship it. Why would they mix poison in its water?” Saini said.

The latest war of words is an extension of the tussle between the two states over the river, waged politically as well as legally since 1995, almost immediately after Delhi got a Legislative Assembly in 1993.

BJP’s New Delhi candidate Parvesh Verma drowns an effigy of former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in the Yamuna, ahead of the Assembly elections. (Express photo by Praveen Khanna)

* On March 31, 1995, the Supreme Court, hearing a plea that sought direction to Haryana to maintain regular flow of water in the Yamuna to mitigate drinking water shortage in the Capital, said in an interim order: “Delhi which is in dire need of water is to be given its allocation of water with immediate effect. We, therefore, direct all the parties to the Memorandum of Understanding to assure that sufficient water, which… is about 2 ½ times of the seasonal allocation, is released… for its consumption during the period March to June 1995.”

The MoU that the top court referred to was signed by five CMs, including those of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh apart from Delhi and Haryana, in May 1994 over the allocation of Yamuna waters.

* Within months, two contempt petitions were filed before the Supreme Court alleging wilful violation of its order. But the Court dismissed the pleas, ruling in February 1996: “Delhi shall continue to get as much water for domestic use from Haryana through River Yamuna which can be consumed and filled in the two water reservoirs and treatment plants at Wazirabad and Hyderpur. Both the Wazirabad and Hyderpur reservoirs shall remain full to their capacity from the water supplied by Haryana through River Yamuna.”

The Court also ordered Haryana not to obstruct the supply of water to Delhi as directed by it, while adding that its order was independent of the MoU signed between the states.

* In the backdrop of water level in the Wazirabad reservoir falling, the DJB moved the Supreme Court again, in April 2018, alleging that the Capital was getting only one-third its share of Yamuna waters, and seeking fresh directions to the Haryana government regarding this. The Court directed the chief secretaries of the two states to immediately meet and resolve the issue at the earliest.

* In May 2018, with the summer heat again bringing water problems to Delhi, the then Manohar Lal Khattar-led BJP government in Haryana assured its counterpart in the Capital that it would release water till the advent of the monsoon if the AAP government in Delhi, in turn, withdrew all cases in various courts as well as the National Green Tribunal (NGT) relating to the water dispute.

* In 2021, the DJB moved the top court alleging a drop in water levels in the Wazirabad pond, and accusing the Haryana government of wilfully disobeying the Supreme Court’s 1996 ruling. The Haryana government shot back saying Delhi was facing a crisis due to “internal mismanagement”. In July 2021, the apex court dismissed the Delhi government’s case.

* In November 2021, the Yamuna issue yet again came to the forefront after then DJB vice-chairman and current AAP Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha claimed that states neighbouring Delhi like Uttar Pradesh and Haryana were polluting the Yamuna by releasing untreated wastewater into it, thus depriving the Capital of drinking water.

* In July 2023, there was a twist. While the Haryana and Delhi governments had before this mostly battled it out over shortage of water, the floods in Delhi that month saw them take a go at each other over a problem of plenty. The AAP government alleged that water was deliberately released from the Hathnikund Barrage in Yamunanagar district of Haryana to flood the capital.

As a part of the May 1994 MoU signed between the five states, the barrage regulates the flow and allocates water to the signatory states through the Western Yamuna Canal in Haryana and Eastern Yamuna Canal in Uttar Pradesh.

* In June 2024, then Delhi water minister Atishi accused the Haryana government of “conspiring against Delhi” by not releasing its share of the Yamuna waters and began an indefinite hunger strike. She ended it in five days after her health deteriorated. She had also alleged that the Haryana government was trying to take Delhi’s share of the water, which Himachal Pradesh was releasing in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling.