Wasting water in dry Delhi

History repeats itself every summer, leaving most Delhiites high and dry, quite literally. Severe water shortage in the city has hit plush areas, resettlement colonies and slum clusters alike.

History repeats itself every summer, leaving most Delhiites high and dry, quite literally. Severe water shortage in the city has hit plush areas, resettlement colonies and slum clusters alike.

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And what has most Delhiites up in arms is the fact that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is neither supplying proper piped water nor providing satisfactory tanker service.

Echoed PK Roy, secretary of East Pakistan Displaced Persons (EPDP), in south Delhi, "Some pockets in Chittaranajan Park don't get proper water supply and have to rely on water tankers. These too, do not come very often."

Unavailability of sufficient raw water — DJB has just about 835 million gallons of water per day (MGD) as against a demand of 1,150 MGD — is just one of the reasons. Leaking, rusting pipelines that burst at the slightest instance also cause loss of water. "There is as much as 35-40 per cent physical loss and revenue loss," said the DJB CEO in his budget speech.

Also, DJB's tendering process for outsourcing tanker service has been pending for five years.

Pipeline restored
Working round the clock, the DJB has restored the 100m of a large supply pipeline that had burst on Friday night in north Delhi. "The affected consumers will get water from tomorrow morning," said a DJB statement on Monday. Supply to NDMC, Delhi Cantonment and colonies along the Ring Road between Dhaula Kuan and Safdarjung was affected.

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