Journalism of Courage
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi will soon be able deliver — albeit partially for now — on its poll promise of providing 24×7 water supply to city households.
In the first phase, Water Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj told The Indian Express that the government was working on providing uninterrupted water supply in East and North East Delhi. “The company given charge of the project submitted that there was a deficit of 15 mgd (million gallons per day) – that is, we are supplying 165 mgd but their requirement for 24×7 supply is 180 mgd. Recently, we surveyed the entire area to assess locations where large, underground tubewells can be installed to bridge the deficit,” Bharadwaj said.
“Tenders for service providers to handle everything from the distribution of supply to the laying of water lines, installing water meters and billing should be floated within two to three weeks to ensure 24×7 water supply in the whole of East and North East Delhi,” he added.
According to Bharadwaj, since late January the AAP government had been making efforts to ensure arrangements for adequate water supply during what is expected to be a blistering summer. “Since January-end, we began calling MLAs as well as Delhi Jal Board (DJB) officials to seek data regarding the requirement for water tankers needed for deployment during the summer. All these tankers have GPS installed on board,” said Bharadwaj, who was sworn into the Delhi Cabinet on Thursday.
“By utilising geo-fencing, we ensure payments only to those tankers which have taken the geo-tagged route to deliver water to areas it is meant for,” he said adding that both the intensity of the water supply problem and the reasons behind it vary according to the location in Delhi.
Areas like Shalimar Bagh, Tri Nagar, Saraswati Vihar, areas in North and North West Delhi as well as South Delhi locations like Mehrauli, Chhatarpur, Sangam Vihar, Deoli, Tughlakabad, Vasant Vihar, Vasant Kunj and Bijwasan were on the list of identified problem areas.
“It depends from area to area. One problem is that there is no water treatment plant in the southern part of the city — all these plants are based either in the east or north — and the other is that the water table here is already low or contaminated, for example, with mica,” he said.
“But it is not like the entire area is dry – that is, if there are 10,000 homes, around 300 will face issues with water supply. That is why we have begun this rationalisation exercise on an individual level to ensure that areas which do not have supply lines can see efficient deployment of water tankers,” he added.
