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CAG report in Assembly nails clean water lies
Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) have long complained that scores of Delhi areas get insufficient water, poor unhygienic water and also at times, no water at all from the Delhi Jal Board. Nivedita Khandekar reports.
Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) have long complained that scores of Delhi areas get insufficient water, poor unhygienic water and also at times, no water at all from the Delhi Jal Board. A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India has just nailed home the grievances.
CAG had sent out a questionnaire to 584 RWAs to ascertain the public perception on the quality of service provided by the DJB, seeking information on the duration of the availability, sufficiency and quality of water supplied and the complaint redressal mechanism etc. Only 111 RWAs responded.
Eighty-seven of such RWAs (78.38%) claimed that they did not receive sufficient water in summer, the CAG report tabled in the Delhi assembly last week pointed out. Around 78 RWAs also said they were not satisfied with the complaint redressal mechanism of the DJB.
As many as 64 RWAs (57.66%), the report said, received water for less than two hours a day in summers and 59 RWAs (53.15%) received water for less than two hours a day in winters. Fifty-nine RWAs (53.15%) felt that water was unfit for drinking in summer while 51 RWAs (45.95%) felt they got unclean water during the winter season, it said.
"Thus the outcome of survey strengthens audit conclusions regarding shortage of water and unequal distribution of water," the CAG said.
BS Vohra, president, East Delhi RWAs Joint Front, said: "There is so much leakage in pipelines, especially in summers that we end up getting dirty sewer mixed water. DJB sends people to act on our complaint. Things are normal for 3-4 days and then it again starts giving us trouble," he said.
Pankaj Aggarwal of the Federation of Safdarjung Enclave RWAs added that gone were the days 25-30 years ago when water could be directly consumed from the tap.
"The concept has shifted to storage of water that comes at midnight and use of RO purifiers," Aggarwal said.
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