Bright blue water, and some foam: This is what’s gushing out of taps at this Outer Delhi village; residents blame ‘dyeing units

“Factories and dyeing units in the area are disposing of their toxic waste carelessly. The area’s water supply is generally not good; over the last four months, we faced issues of irregular and dirty supply. In the last two weeks, however, the water flowing from our taps is visibly polluted, it is blue… the administration concerned has been informed, but it has been quiet when it comes to taking action,” claims village head Vinod Shaukeen.

The blue water flowed into the streets too. “The issue persists in at least 45 houses. In many other houses, the water is not visibly blue but people have been falling sick nonetheless… we haven’t been using tap water and are being forced to buy cans… the water is so blue that it has stained our washroom tiles,” said Manish Kumar, a resident.

Ranjeet Sahu, who has been living in the village for the last six years, says they collected the blue water in a bottle and visited all authorities. “We went to the DJB for help… there is no door we haven’t knocked on but everyone has turned a blind eye to our plight. The water and sewer pipeline of our village run close to each other… the sewer line is very old so it tends to occasionally leak onto the roads. The population of the village has increased, but the sewerage system does not have the capacity to handle the load. Currently, blue water is flooding the roads too,” he adds.

“Our panchayat sangh visited the village. There is anger growing amongst villagers over this; the polluted water supply has put them in danger of contracting diseases…,” says Than Singh Yadav, head of Delhi’s panchayat collective.

The panchayat sangh also announced that if nothing is done, a meeting of all three villages of Nangloi will be called Sunday to brainstorm on actions that can be taken to solve this issue. “The administration concerned is treating poor residents and farmers of Delhi’s rural villages like second-class citizens and denying them basic necessities. This will not be tolerated anymore,” asserts Yadav.

DJB officials, however, say they are not aware of the matter.

“There are many areas in Delhi where the water is polluted. We keep getting complaints in this regard for which we have a helpline number; from there, the issue gets transferred to a junior engineer who then works on resolving the issue. The amount of time taken depends on the complexity of the issue… we will take this issue into notice and solve it at the earliest,” says a DJB official.