Pilot project shows Delhi's ambitious 24x7 water supply scheme a long shot

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government harbours a dream of providing 24x7 water supply to city residents and has been long exploring possibilities in this regard, but if a pilot project is anything to go by, it may take decades for the scheme to become a reality, owing to the massive size of the distribution and monumental challenges. On an average, each household in Delhi gets around four hours of water supply per day. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) supplies around 935 million gallons of water per day (MGD) against the demand of 1,140 MGD.

To cover the deficit, the utility has a number of plans, including setting up new water treatment plants and storing water in floodplains of Yamuna but that too will take time.

In a city where lakhs of people rely on illegal borewell and private tankers, and 42 per cent of water gets stolen or leaked, showing continuous water supply is a long shot. The DJB first discussed the ambitious idea of continuous water supply in 2009 and started a pilot project, in a partnership with Suez Group, in January 2013, aiming at providing 24x7 water to every consumer in Malviya Nagar and Vasant Vihar areas.

According to officials, the deadline for completing the work was December 2014. Around six and a half years later, the pilot project has covered only around 800 houses in two small pockets –Navjeevan Vihar and Geetanjali Enclave –in Malviya Nagar and 450 houses in West End Colony of Vasant Vihar, according to senior engineer Virender Kumar, who heads the project. The entire work relates to covering 50,000 connections in Malviya Nagar and 8,000 in Vasant Vihar, he said.

The pilot project got delayed due to non-availability permission from land owning-agencies, including the municipal corporations, the Delhi Development Authority and the Forest Department, Virender Kumar claimed. The pilot project is stuck because the utility does not have enough water to ensure 24x7 supply in the entire project area. "In the project area, we are getting around 65 million gallons of water per day (MLD) against 80 MLD required to ensure continuous water supply. Currently, 24x7 water supply is available only in these three small pockets," Virender Kumar said.

"We cannot draw water from the quota of neighbouring areas as that would be unfair. People start asking questions -- why they are getting three hours of supply while others get water 24x7," he said.

On Saturday, Chief Minister and DJB chairman Arvind Kejriwal chaired a meeting of senior officials of the board and discussed several issues including problems faced by people due to the complex process of obtaining a new water connection. "Providing water to people is our duty. We should not have any complex rules for new water connections," he said.