Missing DJB Tankers Escalate Delhi's Water Crisis Amidst Heatwave

A severe water shortage in Delhi has been exacerbated by the disappearance of 100 out of 250 DJB water tankers. The interim Congress Delhi chief, Devender Yadav, criticized the AAP government for not addressing the issue adequately and failing to ensure sufficient water supply from neighboring states.

At least a hundred of the DJB's 250 water tankers have vanished from its roster amid a severe water shortage that has crippled the national capital, the Congress' interim Delhi chief Devender Yadav alleged on Tuesday.

He claimed that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) always had 250 departmental tankers in operation during summers.

This summer, 100 tankers went missing, Yadav alleged and wondered where those had gone.

It was also surprising that the DJB did not increase the number of tankers to tackle the water shortage as AAP had come to power 10 years ago on the promise of providing free power and water to Delhi residents, he said.

Yadav claimed that the DJB had 407 tankers on contract, 541 on rent and 250 belonging to the department in 2022 to service 10,141 water shortage points of Delhi.

The Delhi government wakes up to the water scarcity at the last moment as the DJB does not formulate any summer action plan in advance to address the shortage. When the water scarcity gets out of control, AAP and the BJP indulge in blame games and accuse each other of complicity and laxity in tackling the shortage, he alleged.

The national capital has been reeling from a severe water shortage for weeks, with little to no supply amid searing heatwave conditions. The city's AAP government has accused Haryana of not releasing its share of water. Yadav said the Delhi government should have written to the Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh governments for the release of sufficient water to meet the city's peak summer demand. The AAP government yet again failed to do this, he alleged.

A Supreme Court bench had directed the Upper Yamuna River Board to meet on June 14 and take a decision on the issue of giving Delhi water at the earliest.

Though the meeting was held, the water shortage continues to persist even four days after it, Yadav said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)