The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has found deficiencies in supply of potable water in the city. In its recent report, the CAG has pointed out that the raw water available in Delhi is not sufficient to provide potable water to the whole population as per the prescribed norms.
“Two dams were proposed on the Yamuna in 1994 to augment the raw water in Delhi, but were not constructed even after a lapse of 18 years after incurring an expenditure of Rs.214 crore. The production of potable water at water treatment plants and waste water recycling plants was also found to be below the designed capacity,” the CAG noted.
Critical of the Delhi Jal Board, that supplies water to the city, the CAG noted that drinking water was not being distributed equitably and about 24.8 per cent of the households were being supplied water through tankers in the absence of piped supply. The CAG has found water wastage at the Chandrawal WTP on account of defective valves and sluice gates. In the absence of proper measurement systems, the audit could not ascertain wastage at the plant. It also found a delay in the commissioning of recycling plant at Chandrawal that has deprived people of 7 MGD of water for more than four years.
“The DJB has neither proper measurement system to measure water supplied to different areas nor reliable data about the population in different areas to regulate supply of water equitably. Metering of water supply at consumer end was not comprehensive due to which the non-revenue water i.e. water that does not fetch any revenue, remained more than 60 per cent during the last three years,” the CAG noted.
To assess the quality of service, the CAG had sent a questionnaire to about 584 RWAs in the city. An analysis of responses from 111 showed that 64 of them received water for less than two hours a day during summer and 59 received water for less than two hours a day in winter and 71 did not receive sufficient water in other seasons also.
