Delhi has a “serious management problem” when it comes to water supply, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said, while asking the Delhi Jal Board to explain how and where the city’s raw water supply is being distributed.
In a letter to the DJB this week, Mr. Kejriwal said that Delhi had 900 million gallons per day (MGD) of raw water available for a population of almost 2 crore.
Per capita usage
“This gives per capita water availability of 170 litres per capita per day [lpcd], which is one of the highest in the world. Many European countries have water availability of less than 150 lpcd... yet they provide 24x7 water supply,” he said.
He said that the United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Austria had per capita water supply of 150 lpcd, 115 lpcd, 125 lpcd, 131 lpcd, 107 lpcd and 125 lpcd respectively.
“With 170 litres per capita per day, we are not able to provide even a few hours of water to each household. This means that it is a serious management problem,” he said, asking the DJB to explain where the water was going.
The Chief Minister asked the water utility to give details of how much water was being supplied to each of the 70 Assembly constituencies in Delhi. According to experts, however, Delhi has not been able to keep up with the unauthorised construction in the city, which has meant that large parts are still not connected to the DJB’s pipelines.
Water unaccounted for
As a result, officials in the DJB said, the amount of water lost to leakages, including unauthorised connections, is unknown. As per the Delhi government’s own Statistical Handbook of 2016, the per capita water supply in 2015 was 48 gallons per capita per day. This means that on average, Delhiites get about 218 lpcd. But, as per the Delhi government’s Draft Water Policy, there is inequality in the distribution of water, with some areas getting as little as 20 lpcd and others as much as 450 lpcd. The National Water Commission has set the minimum supply for sewered areas at 135 lpcd, and after taking into account 15% losses, the target should be to provide 160 lpcd, the water policy states. The policy is yet to be implemented.
