The Hindu : New Delhi News : `Debating 24X7 is wasting time'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 13, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

`Debating 24X7 is wasting time'

Staff Reporter

No estimates on how much extra water would be needed, says Director of CSE

NEW DELHI: The Director of the Centre for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain, on Saturday said debating the pros and cons of Delhi Jal Board's much talked about 24X7 scheme was a waste of time as the plan would not even work. Commenting on the controversial scheme, Ms. Narain said the fact remains that water is a scarce commodity and little had been done to change that. There was absolutely no estimation as to how much additional water would be needed if the scheme does indeed supply it for 24 hours. The work plan was that the private company would reduce the 50 per cent distribution losses and this would make good the difference. But there was no understanding of these losses. "Surely thieves are not siphoning off 50 per cent of Delhi's water supply," she remarked.

"From what little is known, it seems water losses are about leakages from underground connections. Which company, however efficient, will be able to retrofit all the underground connections," she asked, adding that in one water distribution zone, the Delhi Jal Board had estimated the consumption at 139 million litres daily (mld). The supply had been measured and found to be 223 mld, a huge difference of over 100 million litres of water a day. Unable to explain this, the private consultant simply advised the World Bank and the Delhi Government to ignore the difference and go by Delhi Jal Board figures.

"In other words, little is known about the water situation in this zone.'' Also, little is known of the current demand compared to what it will be when water is supplied 24x7. The consultant's monitoring estimates is pure jugglery and states it should be 189 litres per capita daily (lpcd). But in the project's calculations, water demand is estimated by taking into account a much lesser quantum of daily consumption — 130 lpcd for just 13 per cent of the rich and 30 lpcd for 32 per cent of the poor. "The result is that the total demand for this zone is predicted to be just 66 lpcd, or 48 mld."

On the issue of tariffs, Ms. Narain said it was estimated that it costs the Delhi Jal Board Rs. 8 to Rs. 9 to supply 1,000 litres of water for which it charges roughly Rs. 2. "Nobody knows what collection and disposal of sewage costs, but it is estimated it is normally five times higher than water distribution costs," she added.

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