Delhi Budget: Access to water key to dignity of life, says Atishi
The finance minister said the government is aiming to ensure water supply and sewerage facilities reach every household in Delhi
Finance minister Atishi announced in the budget speech on Monday that the Delhi government has allocated ₹7,195 crore to the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to expand access to water and sewerage services in the Capital. This year’s budget estimate for the water sector is ₹853 crore higher than the ₹6,342 crore allocated in 2023-24.
The finance minister said the government is aiming to ensure water supply and sewerage facilities reach every household in Delhi.
The additional allocation comes at a time when DJB has been facing a consistent drop in its revenue from bills and the government is embroiled in a tussle over the one-time settlement (OTS) scheme for waiving inflated bills --- with the latter being seen as an outreach to citizens ahead of the general elections.
The economic survey of Delhi, which was tabled on Friday, said that DJB’s revenue collection from water bills dropped from ₹1530.6 crore during 2021-22 to ₹1294.86 crore during 2022-2023. In comparison, the previous economic surveys said that the collections were ₹1,773 crore in 2020-21; ₹1,637 crore in 2019-20; and ₹1,819 crore in 2018-19.
Linking the model of Delhi governance to the concept of “Ram Rajya”, the minister said the government has worked towards liberating women from long queues behind tankers for water. She also spoke at length about the changes brought about by the Aam Aadmi Party-led government in the water sector over the last nine years
“In the Hindu religion, it is believed that there is no greater virtuous deed than offering water to a thirsty person. Water is not just a necessity but a foundation of a dignified life,” she added.
The minister said that when AAP came to power in 2014, a quarter of Delhi’s population used to grapple with a lack of water. “Whether in unauthorised colonies where water lines had not been laid or in slums where women and girls had to wake up at 4am to stand in long queues waiting for tankers... some fights and conflicts often turned fatal,” she added.
Presently, the city sources around 612.5 million gallons per day (MGD) of water from the Yamuna and two canals, 254 MGD of water from Ganga via the Upper Ganga Canal and the rest from groundwater resources (tubewells and ranney wells). Based on the current norm of 60 gallons per capita per day (GPCD) the present requirement of water for Delhi is 1,290 MGD for an estimated population of 21.5 million, leading to a demand-supply gap of over 280 MGD.
The budgetary allocation for the water sector had gone down from ₹7,610 crore (10% of overall expenditure) to ₹6,342 crore 2022-23, which is 8% of the overall share.
The budget document for this year said the government started providing 20,000 liters of free water to ensure equal access to water in the Capital and approximately 62.5% of houses in Delhi (around 1.7 million families) were now receiving water free of cost. It added that over the last nine years, 9,34,000 homes in Delhi have received water supply for the first time. “Presently, the water availability in Delhi has increased from 840 MGD to 1,009 MGD,” Atishi added.
The minister said that the water pipelines have been laid at a “war footing level in unauthorised colonies and slums.”
“There is likely no slum cluster in Delhi where water pipelines have not reached every household... 99.6% of unauthorised colonies have water pipelines. In the direction of ensuring sewer facilities, there are a total of 4,243km of sewer lines, and 1,031 unauthorised colonies are now connected to the sewer network. After 2014, our government has laid 2,422km of new water pipelines and 3,100km of new sewer pipelines, so that every resident can get the basic facilities,” she added.
Delhi BJP president, Virendra Sachdeva said: “The government keeps pumping funds into Delhi Jal Board while ground reality is that over 75% unauthorised colonies still are dependent on water tankers and septic tanks for toilet waste disposal. It is shocking see Kejriwal government pumping in ₹7,200 crore into DJB which has become centre of scams worth ₹78,000 crores during last nine years.”
Experts said that the water demand of the city has continued to rise year after year and is now at unsustainable levels. “We have limited water sources... the limited groundwater aquifers cannot be exploited beyond a limit. The government will have to focus on measures to control the demand levels. The unplanned growth of the city needs to be checked,” said Diwan Singh, environmental activist who led Yamuna Satyagrah for rejuvenating the river.