Now Reading: Ganga canal closure to hit water supply for 20 lakh homes
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Ganga canal closure to hit water supply for 20 lakh homes
More than 20 lakh residents in Ghaziabad and Noida face water disruption as the Upper Ganga Canal will be shut from 21 October to 25 November for annual desilting. The irrigation department said the 195 km stretch from Haridwar to Dasna needs silt removal after the monsoon. Additional work to raise the canal floor by 50 cm at Chhota Haridwar in Muradnagar to prevent drowning incidents is also planned.
UP Jal Nigam operates three water treatment plants fed by the canal, with capacities of 120 MLD, 120 MLD and 240 MLD. Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation has 372 MLD total water capacity against demand of 419 MLD, and 35% of water is lost to leakages. GMC will deploy 70 big and 36 small borewells in the Vasundhara zone, 26 borewells in Indirapuram, and 64 water tankers for areas without network coverage.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The canal closure for over a month exposes a structural deficit: GMC already faces a 47 MLD shortfall and 35% distribution losses. Residents in trans-Hindon colonies will bear the brunt, with borewells and tankers as stopgap measures. The irrigation department's additional work at Muradnagar addresses safety, but does not shorten the disruption. The gap between demand and supply will widen during the shutdown, with no indication of how groundwater quality compares for the affected population.
The next step is to monitor whether GMC's 64 tankers and 106 borewells can cover the 20 lakh users during the 35-day closure.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Methodology and corrections.
