Bhardwaj flags Meerut water crisis, unveils 90-day ward plan

MLC Dharmendra Bhardwaj says Meerut is suffering a dual crisis of water scarcity and chronic flooding, and he has launched a 90-day ward-level accountability plan to track supply, drains and sewerage. The plan targets open drains, groundwater loss and untreated sewage as pressure builds on the city’s water system and the Hindon river.

Why it matters: - Meerut is facing two problems at once: too little usable water and too much floodwater during monsoon. - The city’s water stress affects daily supply, groundwater, drainage safety and river pollution. - The new plan puts ward-by-ward reporting and public deadlines on issues that have often stayed broad and untracked.

What happened: - MLC Dharmendra Bhardwaj, member of the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council from the Meerut-Ghaziabad Local Authorities constituency, raised concern over Meerut’s water crisis and flooding. - Bhardwaj announced a 90-day ward-level water accountability plan for Meerut City. - The plan sets Day 30, Day 60 and Day 90 milestones for publication of findings. - Bhardwaj said the concern is meant to be “concern that refuses to stay vague.” - The office also posted a public-facing plan built from records from the National Mission for Clean Ganga, the state water utility, Meerut Nagar Nigam, the National Green Tribunal and the national rural water mission.

The details: - Municipal supply runs about 4-6 hours a day, with reported per-capita supply at roughly 135 litres daily. - Average annual rainfall is about 886 mm, while the monsoon trend in western Uttar Pradesh has been declining. - Groundwater in parts of Meerut is falling by about half a metre a year. - Sewerage work worth ₹681.78 crore has been sanctioned. - The 220 MLD sewage treatment plant, sanctioned at ₹369.74 crore, missed its 2025 target and was at about 53% physical progress in the last published update. - The Odean Drain carries about 150-182 MLD of untreated load. - Open-drain deaths were reported in January and February 2026. - Hindon survey sites showed dissolved oxygen at zero at several locations. - The Hindon catchment includes 453 industries. - National Green Tribunal cases remain pending, including OA 859/2022 on Hindon pollution and OA 108/2023 on Meerut’s solid-waste dumping. - The tribunal formed an expert panel in December 2022 for a factual report. - Meerut’s road network is about 970 km, and daily solid-waste generation was reported at 900-1,200 tonnes in 2024-25 reporting. - The city has 342 polling booths and about 2,55,238 electors on the post-revision roll.

Between the lines: - The plan is as much about accountability as infrastructure. - By tying every claim to public records, Bhardwaj is trying to make the city’s water crisis measurable and politically harder to ignore. - The emphasis on open drains, dead-end sewage and zero oxygen in the Hindon frames the issue as a public-health and environmental failure, not just a civic inconvenience. - The focus on ward-level data suggests the main problem is uneven service, not only overall scarcity. - The use of deadlines signals an attempt to convert concern into a trackable process rather than a one-time complaint.

What’s next: - By Day 30, Bhardwaj’s office plans to publish the methodology and ward data-collection format. - By Day 60, preliminary findings will be shared with agencies for response. - By Day 90, the full ward-level review is expected to be published. - The plan also calls for a public open-drain map showing drains as open, fenced or covered. - It seeks a covered-drain conversion schedule and immediate fencing and grating at hazardous stretches, starting with school routes, market paths and dense residential lanes. - A sewerage tracker is planned. - The plan pushes rainwater recharge structures in municipal parks and government schools, stricter recharge requirements in new building approvals and revival of traditional water bodies as recharge assets. - A 48-hour grievance clock would require every water and drainage complaint to be acknowledged within 48 hours, registered ward-wise and reported weekly on a public dashboard.

The bottom line: - Meerut’s water crisis is being reframed as a verifiable public record, with ward-by-ward deadlines replacing broad promises.