The Hindu : New Delhi News : Neglect of water bodies by DDA bodes ill for future

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 12, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Neglect of water bodies by DDA bodes ill for future

By Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

NEW DELHI, JAN. 11. Though the draft Master Plan for Delhi-2021 recognises the fact that ground water contributes a substantial quantity of water supply in Delhi and its recharge has been getting limited due to decreased availability of permeable surfaces, the Delhi Development Authority has not been able to even preserve the water bodies in its jurisdiction and this is likely to adversely affect the availability of water in the future.

With 1,160 million gallons per day (mgd) of additional water required over the present availability of 680 mgd to meet the demand for water in 2021, Delhi appears to be heading for a major crisis. What is making matters worse is that bodies like DDA have been unable to protect the water bodies.

In an affidavit filed before the Delhi High Court, DDA had stated on December 6, 2004 that while the Delhi Government had stated before the court that only 580 water bodies could be identified by it as against 794 submitted by the petitioner, Vinod Kumar Jain, the remaining 189 were non-existent and also did not find a mention in the records of various land owning agencies.

Further, the Superintending Engineer, Civil circle IX, Rohini Zone, S.R. Solanki, stated that as per the revised list prepared by the Delhi Government , 102 sites out of the 580 fell in the jurisdiction of DDA. Of these, he said, while 21 are developed as wet water bodies, another 21 had been developed as "parks'', wherein it was not possible to convert the same as water bodies which the same were being utilised as such by the residents of the respective areas.

As for the remaining 60 sites where the water bodies were situation, the official while listing the actual position in an annexure said it would also not be possible in their case to restore the said sites as water bodies. So, in effect of the 102 sites where water bodies existed and which were in its possession, DDA has only been able to retain 21 as wet water bodies.

The failure of DDA in this respect has put a major question mark over its ability to recharge groundwater in the Capital through rainwater harvesting and other methods like roof-top water harvesting.

Though the Vice-Chairman of DDA, Madhukar Gupta, had stated yesterday that Delhi's carrying capacity will get saturated at a population level of around 150 lakh but still the realistic demand of providing around 50 gallons per capita per day can be met at population level of around 230 lakh in 2021, the fact that there has been reduction of around 130 million cubic metres in ground water potential in the 20 year period ending 2003, poses a grim picture.

Incidentally, some Members of Delhi Development Authority and the Advisory Council had also raised the issue of rain-water harvesting at an Authority meeting held under the chairmanship of Lieutenant Governor, B.L. Joshi, at Raj Niwas, yesterday. Mr Gupta had acknowledged this and said there has been great insistence on water harvesting and storage of water under the houses for meeting the water needs of the Capital.

With Delhi receiving average rainfall of around 611 mm, the potential for recharging has been assessed at 900 billion litres or 2500 million litres per day.

And even if 25 per cent of this target is met, it would imply availability of 625 million litres per day.

However, the rampant onslaught of urban areas, which has eaten into the existing water bodies, now threatens open spaces which are a must for any water harvesting scheme to succeed.

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