Ghaziabad: As the Ganga water supply remains suspended for a month for annual desilting, the civic body has made three Ranney wells operational along Hindon to supply 21 million litres per day (MLD) of water to areas including Karhera and Arthala.Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) water works department general manager KP Anand said six wells have been dug along Hindon banks to tap the aquifer, but only three could be made functional, each well with a capacity to supply 7 MLD of treated water.Officials said water drawn from the wells, which also collect rainwater, was treated with chlorine and other methods before being supplied to nearby areas. GMC was also in talks with UP Jal Nigam and the irrigation department to build more such wells along the riverbank, but a depleting water table remains a challenge.The average water table in the city has dropped by about 58% in five years and now lies roughly 12.7m deeper, groundwater department data shows. It stands at 34.71m (post-monsoon), against about 22m five years ago. GMC officials told TOI that they had to re-bore 111 borewells because the groundwater level was depleting.GMC has a water network of about 2,600 km in the city, along with 51 overhead tanks and 27 underground water reservoirs where water is stored and supplied. While Ganga water is used for potable purposes because of its better water quality, it caters to less than 40% of the 48.6-lakh population of the city.As annual desilting of Upper Ganga Canal began on Oct 21 and is set to go on till Nov 25, trans-Hindon areas including Indirapuram, Vaishali, Kaushambi, Vasundhara, Siddharth Vihar, Pratap Vihar and delta colonies like Surya Nagar, which are primarily supplied with Ganga water, are facing shortages.UP Jal Nigam operates three water treatment plants, two with a capacity of 120 MLD each and one producing 240 MLD. At the first 120 MLD plant, 60% of the water goes to GMC areas and the rest to Noida. At the second, 80% is allocated to Noida and 20% to UP Housing Board. At the 240 MLD plant, 75% goes to Noida and the remainder to the housing board.
