The Hindu : New Delhi News : CM promise of more water to Cantt. raises eyebrows

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 03, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

CM promise of more water to Cantt. raises eyebrows

Sandeep Joshi

Additional supply to an over-supplied area unjustified At 509 litres per person per day, water supply to Delhi Cantt. is the highest and an additional 35 MGD from the Sonia Vihar plant would take this figure to over 1,000 litres. In comparison, the supply to Mehrauli is 28 litres pppd, Narela 31, Karala-Kanjhawala 32, Najafgarh 74, Vasant Kunj 74 and South Delhi 142

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's announcement that 25 per cent of water from the 140 million-gallons-a-day (MGD) Sonia Vihar water treatment plant would be allocated to the Delhi Cantonment area has once again brought into focus the issue of inequitable distribution of water in the Capital. Residents of water-starved areas are agitated over the development and question the logic behind allocating additional water to an area that has the highest consumption per person in the Capital.

On Monday when the people of Delhi Cantonment protested before Ms. Dikshit alleging that they were getting inadequate supply as their share was being diverted to the Army areas, the Chief Minister promptly announced that 25 per cent of the water from the Sonia Vihar plant would be supplied to the Delhi Cantonment Board to meet their demands.

Interestingly, at the time of the conception of the Rs. 880-crore project, which is yet to become operational for want of raw water, it was decided that of the 140 MGD production per day, 90 MGD would be allocated to South Delhi while the remaining 50 MGD would be released for East Delhi. However, the new announcement will force the two areas to share their allocation with Delhi Cantonment.

But experts pointed out that the Chief Minister had made a promise when there was still no sign of water reaching the project before next year. They said that the supply to Delhi Cantonment was the highest in the Capital at 509 litres per person per day, and an additional 35 MGD from the Sonia Vihar plant would take this figure to over 1,000 litres. And as per the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS), the average water requirement of a Delhiite was 161 litres per day. So, by this calculation, Delhi Cantonment is already getting enough supply and more allocation was totally unjustified.

Stating that inequitable distribution of water was one of the key reasons for the water crisis, they said that in areas like Lutyens' Delhi, Karol Bagh and Civil Lines, the average daily supply per person was 462, 372 and 370 litres respectively. However, the supply scenario in other parts of the Capital was poor. For instance, the supply to Mehrauli was 28 litres per person per day, Narela 31, Karala-Kanjhawala 32, Najafgarh 74, Vasant Kunj 74 and South Delhi 142.

The water-starved areas in the Capital mainly fall in South, East and Outer Delhi, and by diverting their share to an area already receiving more than sufficient supply would only complicate things, they said, adding the Delhi Jal Board claims that it was supplying 690 MGD water everyday while the daily demand was 800 MGD. However, another 300 MGD supply is met by private tubewells, so that takes the daily production to over 900 MGD. But according to the BIS, the daily requirement was around 550 MGD. So, on ground there was no scarcity. It is only the inequitable distribution of water and failure to check leakages that creates a crisis in Delhi, they added.

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