NOIDA: As the irrigation department of the Uttar Pradesh government is on the verge of completing the work of de-silting the Ganga water canal that supplies drinking water to Noida and other cities, the authority of Noida is expected to resume water supply from the Ganga on Monday.

The irrigation department and Noida authorities failed to restore supply on the eve of Diwali, but now want to ensure it ahead of the Chhath festival during which devotees offer prayers in rivers or other bodies of water. The irrigation department is also releasing at least 700 cusec of Ganga water from Upper Ganga canal into Hindon river from Meerut division to clean the water of Yamuna and Hindon so that Chhat devotees get better water during prayers, officials said.

The Hindon River which originates in the Pur-Ka-Tanda of Sahranpur and merges with Yamuna at Monathal village of Noida. Hindon is also connected to the upstream Yamuna near Okhla via the Shahdara drain.

“We are releasing Ganga water into Hindon so that it gets cleaned and also helps Yamuna water improve for Chhath. We started releasing water on Sunday and it will continue even after Chhath,” said BK Singh, executive engineer of Uttar Pradesh irrigation department.

Due to month-long clean-up work, Noida authorities were not supplied with Ganga water and were not using groundwater for drinking purposes in all residential areas of the city, officials said .

The irrigation department started annual desilting of the Upper Ganga canal on October 12 and stopped the supply of Ganga water to Noida, which receives 240 million liters of Ganga water from this canal daily through a reservoir located in Sidharth Vihar area of ​​Ghaziabad. With the disruption in water supply to Ganga, residents are facing drinking water quality problem as the authority manages to supply only groundwater which is salty and unfit for drinking, said those responsible.

“We have partially completed the desilting works in the Ganga canal and now the remaining cleaning works are underway in the upper part of the canal. On Sunday, we started releasing water into the Ganga canal that supplies Noida. We aim to restore full supply of 240 MLD on Monday as we have already started releasing water for Noida,” said BK Singh, executive engineer of the Uttar Pradesh irrigation department which controls the canal and d other water resources.

Currently, the total water demand in Noida is 332 million liters per day (MLD). The authority supplies 240 MLD of Ganga water to residents and the rest comes from groundwater resources. In the absence of water supply in Ganga, the authority manages drinking water requirements only from groundwater resources, leading to problems such as low water pressure in old sectors and quality problems.

The authority supplies 70% of the Ganges water and 30% of the groundwater in most areas of the city.

The authority provides water to more than 100 residential areas and in future it aims to supply Ganga water to the remaining 50 residential areas once it starts getting a larger quantity of water from the Ganga by the end of 2024.

The authority is yet to start supply of Ganga water to sectors 94, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135, 150 and 151, among others, areas between the road Yamuna embankment and Noida Expressway.

Every year, during these months, the irrigation department cleans the canal and restores water supply to the Ganga after completion of the work.

“We started receiving water supply from Ganga on Sunday and we are hopeful that water supply from Ganga will resume to full capacity of 240 MLD by Monday afternoon. This season, unlike previous years when it took a month, the Ganga water supply was affected only for 16-17 days. The irrigation department restored supply only in 17 days, unlike 2023 when it took a month,” said RP Singh, deputy general manager of the Noida authority who heads the water department. ‘water.

“Since the water supply from the Ganga was stopped, old residential areas have been facing water supply problems, such as a drop in water pressure. There are also problems of muddy water as the authority gets groundwater through tube wells and sometimes sand gets mixed with the water. Old sectors such as sectors 12, 15, 19, 20, 25, 27, 28 and 34, among others, have been facing low water pressure,” said NP Singh, president of the welfare association. -be residents of the Gautam Budh Nagar District Development (DDRWA), a residents’ association. band.