The Hindu : New Delhi News : Dry days in Dwarka

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Sep 22, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Dry days in Dwarka

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 21. The residents of Dwarka, which was supposed to come up as a model township, are these days ruing their decision of coming to the area as it is gripped by a severe water crisis. The water supply to the developed areas has dipped to a fifth of the needs of the residents. As a result, many areas, like Sector 22, have not received any water for the past three to four days with many wondering if the Delhi Metro would start operations to this area next year with a water train!

The situation has now started testing the patience of the residents who have grown tired of staying awake up through the night holding water hoses to fill up whatever water they can from the tubewell connections in the parks dotting the colony. "This underground water is quite hard and not fit for drinking. But at least it helps meet the basic needs,'' says a teary-eyed Tulika, complaining that no one in the family -- including her two children -- had been able to take a bath for the past three days.

The residents complain that while water has always been a problem, it has now become a luxury. "Earlier we received water for half an hour each in the morning and evening. However, as the pressure used to be good, it was enough to fill up the tanks. But since July, the situation has worsened. First, the water quality deteriorated as it apparently got mixed with sewer water. And then earlier this month, the supply simply ceased.''

According to another resident, Usha Kaushal, rather than being a facilitator, water now rules the lives of residents. "Be it midnight or 4 in the morning, at all hours you find people holding long water hoses in their hands and trying to fill their tanks with underground boring water which is available in the connections in the parks.'' The crisis, she says, has started taking its toll on the elderly and those living on the upper floors since the SFS Flats in the colony do not have any lifts.

The Chief Engineers (Dwarka) of Delhi Development Authority, Surinderjit Singh, said as against the water requirement of 6 million gallons per day, DDA only receives 3 MGD supply from Delhi Jal Board. Also, while three of its six planned tanks for Dwarka are complete, the supply is received only at Command Tank No. 2. And since each tank was originally designed to supply only four to five sectors, special arrangements have now been made to pump as far as seven kilometres away.

Further, of the 3 MGD supply, 1 MGD went to the unauthorised colonies of Shad Nagar and Raj Nagar, while only about 2 MGD remained for the planned areas. But in the past week even this water availability has dipped to about 1.25 MGD leading to the crisis.

With the residents growing restless, the matter was taken up by DDA with the Chief Engineer (Distribution) of DJB, the local MLA, Dharam Dev Solanki, and the DDA Chairman, Madhukar Gupta, who in turn wrote to the DJB Chief Executive Officer, Rakesh Mohan. Following a meeting convened by Mr Mohan on Thursday, the DJB staff are now monitoring the water supply at the Command Tank 2.

With no immediate lasting solution to the problem in sight, DDA has now requested the Central Ground Water Authority to sink five more tubewells in the area to augment the supply.

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