Why Delhi’s water sector needs structural reforms
Over the past few months, water became a dominant theme in Delhi’s poll discourse of maligning the rival.
The situation could have been straight out of a black comedy. Political leader A accused a rival party of poisoning the city’s river upstream. Leader B, in a dramatic rebuttal, took a sip of the river water to prove otherwise. Leader A then claimed his opponent merely put the water in his mouth and spat it out. This spectacle isn’t a satire, as most of us would know by now.
Rather, it was the political drama surrounding Delhi’s water crisis in the lead-up to the assembly elections. Over the past few months, water became a dominant theme in Delhi’s poll discourse of maligning the rival. Apart from river water (Yamuna) pollution, the shortfalls in raw water supply, stranglehold of the water-tanker mafia, monsoon flooding leading to deaths, erratic billing, unreliable supply, financial mismanagement and corruption were part of the water-sector accusations and counters. These are, of course, real and need governance and managerial solutions. But, instead, they seem to have been reduced to mere political battlegrounds.
Interestingly, other utilities and services in Delhi — power, Metro, and piped gas — have not gotten embroiled in political controversy to the same extent. A key difference is leadership. Unlike the other utilities, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is helmed by a political leader rather than a professional administrator. According to the DJB Act of 1998, the board’s chairperson is supposed to be the minister responsible for water and sanitation. Traditionally, this role has been filled by the chief minister, and more recently, by other senior political leaders. This direct political control has blurred the lines between governance and political interests, affecting the utility’s functioning. Political leadership for a water utility is not unique to Delhi, as this is also the case for the water utilities of Hyderabad and Chennai.
However, a couple of other factors have amplified the politicisation of Delhi’s water sector. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) made free water supply and bill waivers a central plank of its politics, turning water provision into a populist issue rather than a governance challenge. Over the last decade, the bitter contest between the AAP in the national capital and the Union government reached unprecedented levels. In this climate, any failure in water management quickly escalated into a political firestorm, given the political leadership of DJB. The fact that DJB has long struggled with inefficiencies, poor service delivery and financial losses, offers ample opportunities for such political conflagrations.
Any utility service requires large capital investments with long time horizons, as well as a strong focus on asset management, to ensure affordable, efficient, and sustainable delivery. Politics in the day-to-day running of these services can have severe consequences. Key decisions on capital expenditure, tariff setting, network loss reduction, manpower planning, and financial management can become vulnerable to political compulsions, rather than being guided by strategic planning considerations.
Compared to other utility sectors, water supply tends to be more vulnerable to politics, given its status as a basic necessity, as well as the complex interplay of economic, social, and environmental factors. In a rapidly urbanising country such as India, where climate uncertainties are on the rise, these complexities are becoming even more pronounced. Without a stable governance framework, water utilities become vulnerable to inefficiency and mismanagement.
To ensure sustainable and efficient water supply management, Delhi needs to emulate governance and service delivery models that have worked well in other utility sectors. There needs to be a clear role separation, wherein the political leadership sets the long-term sector policies and goals, while the utility’s operations are left to professional managers as seen in the functioning of electricity, metro and piped gas services. The utility needs to be helmed by empowered professional managers with the requisite expertise, and adequate tenures to enable long-term decision-making. Other crucial elements would include: predictable and adequate financing for long-term planning and infrastructure development; and independent regulatory bodies to oversee decision-making and ensure accountability and transparent functioning.
Such a reform agenda may appear highly ambitious. However, a restructured governance framework for Delhi’s water sector is crucial for not just efficient and affordable service delivery, but also to ensure sustainable water resource management and develop resilience to the climate crisis. A consensus is needed to take forward structural reforms that prioritise these sector goals over electoral calculations. Only then can Delhi move beyond its current cycle of water crises and political grandstanding to ensure a secure and stable water future for its citizens.
Vandana Bhatnagar is a senior development sector practitioner and institutional strategy specialist. The views expressed are personal
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