After weeks of trading allegations and a two-hour meeting between the Chief Ministers of the two States on Monday, the ongoing water sharing dispute between Delhi and Haryana was eventually attributed to “heat”, “high demand”, “miscommunication” and “poor water management on Delhi’s side”.

If there was an agreement between the two sides, it could not be spelt out. Both sides maintained it was a “cordial meeting” and outstanding issues will be sorted through discussions, but no details were offered.

Delhi has been accusing Haryana of curtailing its water supply, Haryana is adamant that Delhi is getting its full share, both have offered their records as proof to back their respective claims, but the Upper Yamuna River Board, which has been asked to verify these records, has turned to the Central Water Commission to investigate and come out with the truth.

Part of the Union Water Resources Ministry, UYRB's mandate is to regulate the water sharing agreement of allocated water between the riparian States of the Yamuna. Unable to break the deadlock between the two States, the UYRB has now decided to rope in the Central Water Commission.

“Delhi Jal Board is yet to implement equitable distribution”

“Nobody cares… we just keep getting lame excuses,” says V.K. Arora as he bemoans the daily struggle for water faced by residents of South Delhi's Kailash Hills. At the tail end of the supply chain, residents here have to depend mainly on private water tankers and some stealthily-dug bore wells. In East Delhi's Ram Nagar Extension, residents recently received water mixed with sewage that smelt foul, looked bad and was absolutely unfit for consumption.

Living in the resettlement colony of Sawda Ghevra with no amenities and poor hygienic conditions, over 25,000 people will finally have access to drinking water if the Delhi Jal Board's proposal to set up a decentralised water treatment plant takes shape.

To take water to the areas that are currently not supplied piped water like Sawda Ghevra, the DJB wants decentralised drinking water plants that can help meet the demands of these areas.

Almost six years and Rs. 414 crore later, Delhi and Haryana are still wrangling over the Munak canal and the water that it was supposed to bring to the Capital. The impediments that got in the way included environmental clearances, monetary disagreements and bickering over how much water Haryana is supposed to release for Delhi.

The latest stand-off is over the release of 80 MGD of water that Delhi claims it should get apart from what is being released and Haryana's demand for the release of Rs.106 crore.

Lack of rainwater harvesting finishing many resources

A large water body at Dhulsiras village in South-West Delhi is an example of what a water body should not be. Littered with plastics and other refuse, moss-covered and encroached on all sides, this water body is also an example of poor management and utter neglect. “It was a fairly large water body but residents gradually began to fill it up and to create more space for their houses and cattle, and whatever remains of it today is used as a littering bin,” said Rakesh Kumar, a resident of a nearby village and a volunteer with non-government organisation Natural Heritage First.

A variety of birds flock the recovered stream within 48 hours

For the past couple of weeks Rakesh Kumar with his borrowed binoculars and relentless patience has been busy tracking and keeping record of the varieties and number of birds that have begun to flock to a small water body inside a park in Dwarka's Pochanpur village. The water body that has become home to the winged visitors has been revived in a park maintained by the Delhi Development Authority.

The small village in North-West Delhi with a population of about 11,000 has been seeking consolidation of the land holdings and increasing the “Lal Dora” limits to create more space for villagers to build their houses. The villagers also do not have any proof of land ownership.

In the absence of consolidation and the expansion of Lal Dora, several villagers who have no land earmarked for residential purposes have been forced to construct houses on agricultural land, which is illegal.

Company proposes to introduce a new “reliability charge”

In an attempt to quell the bickering over the need to raise power tariffs, power distribution company Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited has come out with a clarification that if its demand for an increase in power charges is met in the soon-to-be-announced tariff order, it will scale down the requirement to raise tariff in the successive years.

Delhiites will have to pay more for power from this month, particularly in the areas under the BRPL and the BYPL, and this hike is independent of the new tariff structure that is still being worked out.

The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission on Wednesday agreed to a “fuel price adjustment surcharge” for the power distribution companies TPDDL, BRPL and BYPL in the range of 4 to 7 per cent, scrapping the 5 per cent provisional surcharge introduced in February.