Treated water will help 800 south Delhi parks stay green in summer

Presently, half of the city’s parks have borewells but most of them are non-functional because of the depleting ground water level.

South Delhi residents next year can hope to see some greenery in their neighbourhood parks even during the city’s scorching summer.

A man exercises at a park on a morning in New Delhi. (REUTERS)

The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has come up with an action plan to deal with water shortage in around 800 city parks during summer which will allow these parks to remain green.

The civic body has signed a memorandum of understanding(MOU) with Hyatt Regency Hotel and Select Citywalk Mall for take water from their sewer treatment plant and supply it to parks across the area.

The civic body said they would lay pipelines for this purpose.

“The water from Select Citywalk Mall is already supplied to Jamunwala Park in south Delhi. Water from Hyatt Regency will supply 100 kilolitres of water per day to at least 10 neighbourhood parks,” said Alok Kumar, director, horticulture department, south MCD.

Presently, half of the city’s parks have borewells but most of them are non-functional because of the depleting ground water level. In March 2016, the SDMC has signed an MoU with Jaypee Vasant Continental for supplying water in Munirka Enclave. “Depleting ground water levels and ban on digging of new bore wells have restricted the water supply to parks. To deal with the crisis, we are resorting to using treated water from sewer plants,” said Kumar.

The SDMC official said that the pipeline for supplying water from sewage treatment plant at Mayapuri Industrial area to parks in west Delhi has also been completed and 20 parks will be covered through the STP plant in next two months.

Similarly, the civic body is in talks with DJB to get treated water from their plants. The water can be used in at least 270 acre of parks in south, central and west Delhi. “DJB has plants in Vasant Vihar, Keshavpur, Okhla and Pappan Kalan. As soon as the MoU is signed we will start work for laying pipelines,”s said the official.

Besides arranging for water supply in parks through STPs, the agency is also targeting to installing water sprinklers at 100 parks by March 2018.

“Two of them have already been installed at Munirka Enclave and Madhav Park in west Delhi. The sprinklers save up to 60% of water and cover wider area in comparison to supplying bulk water through pipelines, “said official from horticulture department.