NEW DELHI: The Delhi government launched one of the biggest projects for augmentation of water supply in the city at Chandrawal on Monday. Delhi CM and Jal Board Chairman Arvind Kejriwal laid the foundation stone for the project, along with Cabinet Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, the DJB V-C Dinesh Mohaniya and CEO DJB Nikhil Kumar.
"The government is launching the construction of a 47.7 crore litre water treatment plant at Chandrawal today which will help supply clean drinking water 24x7 to 22 lakh people living in the command area of this plant, that is, the people of Chandni Chowk, Rajendra Nagar, Civil Lines, Patel Nagar, Karol Bagh, New Delhi, among others," said Kejriwal.
"Delhi does not have a water source of its own. It's allocation (quota) of Yamuna and Ganga water was decided in 1994, he said at the foundation stone-laying ceremony for Chandrawal Phase-2 water treatment plant.
"In the last 25 years, the city's population has increased from 1.25 crore to 2.25 crore, but its water quota remains unchanged, barring what we received through the Munak Canal. We will urge the Centre to increase it," Kejriwal said.
"Today after just four and half years, the number of colonies with piped water supply has gone from 58% to 88%. It took 70 years to get to 58% and just 4.5 years to add 30% more colonies. There is still work to be done. There are about 200 colonies that still need to be covered. Apart from those colonies where laying pipelines is not feasible, all other colonies will get piped water in the next 2 years and pipelines are being laid for this purpose," announced the Chief Minister.
"Delhi is the national capital and ensuring enough drinking water in the city is a collective responsibility of every government. We are not demanding water for irrigation, we need drinking water," he said.
At present, Delhi gets its water from the Ganga canal, the western Yamuna canal, the Bhakra canal and the Yamuna river. Besides, the DJB draws 80 million gallons of groundwater per day.
The chief minister also said his government would provide round-the-clock clean drinking water supply to the entire city by 2024.
"It's our mission. In the last four and a half years we have made a lot of progress. By 2024, the government would provide clean drinking water to every house through taps," he said.
The 105-MGD water treatment plant (WTP) at Chandrawal comes after a gap of 13 years. It will be constructed at a cost of Rs 598 crores in 3 years.
"At present, we are supplying 930 million gallons of water per day (MGD) against the demand of 1,200 MGD," Kejriwal said.
Chandrawal Phase-2 will have the advanced technology of ozonisation and activated carbon to ensure un-interrupted working of the plant.
It will be able to treat high ammonia content up to 4 parts per million (ppm) in the raw water. Earlier, the plant had to be shut down whenever ammonia content increased to 1 ppm, resulting in disruption in water supply in its entire command area.