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Water, water... can be everywhere

Venkatesh Dutta, a researcher with TERI, has just bagged the prestigious Global Development Research Medal Award for penning a paper on water supply reforms with a thrust on the Delhi situation

THE SELF-STARTER Venkatesh Dutta

With summer arrives a perennial problem in Delhi - water shortage. Some get an additional water tank installed to pump in spare water when there is supply, some go for an extra deep tube-well to keep the hose flowing, many line up for hours to catch a bucketful from the infrequent government water vans, and then there are so many seen blocking roads to lodge fervidly with the authorities their protest against water shortage.

But year after year, the saga continues with the water supply dipping to a new low as the city's population swells.

With such a background, when this Ph.D. scholar with TERI School of Advanced Studies talks about how one can sort out the water problem in Delhi by stating a methodical route, you have to halt and listen. More so because, the researcher, Venkatesh Dutta, has just bagged the Global Research Medal Award for 2005 at a competition considered the world's largest such event in development research. He read out his paper on water reforms in the unplanned sector with a particular thrust on the state of affairs in Delhi. His success has the extra edge of being the only one to be chosen from as many as 700 submissions from about 100 countries made to the Seventh Annual Global Development Conference held at St. Petersburg, Russia, this mid-January.

"Privatisation of water is not just the one-point solution to water scarcity in Delhi. We have to have many regulations in place before this," begins Venkatesh. As an example, he talks of water loss of 48 to 50 per cent through poor management of water at present due to usage of old and rusted pipes, leaking water vans, etc. He raises some pertinent points in his paper titled, "Public Support for Water Supply Reforms in Unplanned Sector: Empirical Evidence from an Urban Utility" as the present loopholes of the Delhi Jal Board's supply. For instance, "We have to demarcate well the potable water from the non-potable. Say for instance, the same water just shouldn't be allowed to flush the toilets and to go through kitchen pipe."

Site-specific models

Before privatising water supply, he feels strongly that the government should insist on "site-specific models" across the city. "The same model in a South Delhi colony won't work in a jhuggi-jhopri (JJ) cluster," he states. Contrary to the general belief that the slum residents are not willing to pay for their water supply, Venkatesh says in the process of his research he found that "most JJ cluster residents in Delhi are willing to pay an amount for regular water supply. They are open to an increased tariff too considering they get regular supply unlike in many Delhi colonies where people are up against raising water tariff any more."

So ultimately, the buck stops at good quality area-specific service, provided by DJB or any private operator. But the point is, are the people who matter listening? "I have not been working in isolation. Often I visited DJB offices and discussed solutions with their engineers who agree with my suggestions," says Venkatesh. But then, are these engineers not mere cogs in a wheel who can be changed any day, anytime? This leads us to a single solution that can solve not just water scarcity but many other significant issues - the political will.

SANGEETA BAROOAH PISHAROTY

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