Kejriwal asks Jal Board to pump more groundwater
The chief minister said that Delhi was producing 990 million gallons per day (MGD) of water a day while it should be producing 1,110 MGD
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal suggested on Tuesday that the Delhi Jal Board should pump more groundwater to augment supply and asked the Delhi Jal Board to explore the possibility developing a a tube-well network across the city.
“Many areas of Delhi including floodplains have high water-tables, we can start extracting groundwater to supply to our citizens from there,” Kejriwal said while chairing a meeting of the jal board.
The chief minister said that Delhi was producing 990 million gallons per day (MGD) of water a day while it should be producing 1,110 MGD. He added that the current water demand in Delhi is 1,260 MGD but the DJB is only able to supply 990 MGD -- of which 126 MGD is sourced from groundwater resources.
Kejriwal said that in accordance with the government’s plans the water supply capacity should have reached 1,110 MGD. “This is not the time for delays. Water is a matter of great sensitivity for Delhi. We have to work on water supply augmentation on priority,” he said.
He added that the water utility should work on developing a network of 500 tube wells to extract water as well as recharging infrastructure in the city. “On an average we are extracting 0.1-0.2MGD water from a tube well. We just have to look at the water table and identify places for extracting water. This will greatly help in our plan to supply water to every household,” Kejriwal said.
Sewer network review
Kejriwal also announced that all houses in north-east and east Delhi will be connected to the sewer network by June this year. “One of our priorities is to connect the whole of Delhi with the sewer network so that untreated water does not get discharged into the Yamuna. The household sewer connection project and Yamuna cleaning project will now be reviewed every 15 days,” Kejriwal said.
A DJB official said that Delhi has 1,799 unauthorized colonies with around 1,618,080 households. “Of these 1,618,080 households, around 340,720 units have already been connected to the sewer network while work is under progress connecting the remaining units. Out of the 1,799 colonies, 747 are already connected to the sewer network,” the official added.
Delhi generates an estimated 768 MGD sewage every day. However, the installed sewage treatment capacity is 632 MGD. The water utility plans to increase this treatment capacity to 727 MGD by June this year, and to 934.5 MGD by the end of 2024, DJB official said.
The water utility has provided break up of the projects being taken up under the household sewer connection project. A DJB official said that the work for laying down of the sewer network is under progress in another 573 colonies. “Of the 7,77,151 houses across these colonies, 2,46,581 houses have already been connected to the sewer network, and the remaining houses will be connected to the network by December this year. We will cover another 4,45,000 houses under the decentralized sewage treatment plants that will be spread across 318 colonies. Every house in these colonies will receive this connection within 12 months of land being allocated for plant,” DJB official added. The water utility plans to develop 26 such decentralized plants out of which land has been allocated for 16 units.