Purana Qila lake may lose recharge capacity

NEW DELHI: Delhi’s

groundwater resources

are fast depleting and many parts are already suffering from indiscriminate withdrawal that may take years to replenish. Yet, agencies are considering lining or concretising the base of the moat lake at

Purana Qila

to ensure that there is water all year round.

The Archaeological Survey of India, following a National Green Tribunal order, has started restoring the moat and outsourced the work to the National Building Construction Corporation.

But, recently, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan found that a part of the plan is also to concretise the water body and fill it up with water from Okhla STP. YJA wrote to the LG and the CM about how it would inhibit groundwater recharge in a water-scarce city like Delhi. “While we commend the plans to use treated water to keep the water body filled, we find it absolutely bizarre for ASI to plan its concretisation and bottom lining with foreign material,” YJA wrote.

Plans to concretise the base were confirmed by the NBCC contractor who said the plan had not yet been taken up because of complaints on environmental grounds.

“We are digging the moat deeper by 1 to 1.5 metres because there was a lot of silt. The soil is sandy and water usually percolates very quickly; it also evaporates in summer. So, every year before summer, it dries up. There were different proposals to deal with this. One of the proposals was to line the base. But no decision has been taken on taking it forward,” said one of the officials who is working on the project.

NBCC is getting landscaping done and walkways constructed around the moat now. The moat would be filled with water from Okhla STP and further treated at the site before being used, officials said.

NGT had last year pulled up ASI for the poor condition of the moat. It had asked why it wasn’t being restored despite the tribunal’s directions on restoring all water bodies in the capital.

NBCC CMD, AK Mittal, said the water body was full of malba. “We have to ensure that the water doesn’t go down and, at the same time, it remains clean. There will be aeration of water to ensure it remains clean and there will be treatment of the soil underneath so that water is not absorbed completely. The landscaping will be state of the art,” Mittal said.

NBCC plans to complete the restoration project before October. The moat itself has immense heritage value. “Yamuna used to flow close to the Qila before it meandered to the east. Water from Yamuna would come up to the moat and fill it up. It has very high groundwater recharge value, too. Our conservative estimate is that the moat can recharge about 10 million litres per year,” Manu Bhatnagar, head, natural heritage division of INTACH, said. In simple terms, the recharge potential of the moat — 2 hectares in size — is enough to sustain the water needs of 30,000 people over a year, Bhatnagar added.


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