Alternating between despair and anger, Sharda Rani, who lives in a South Delhi jhuggi cluster, said the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) was responsible for her family’s plight.
The resident of Tigri said her family was forced to skimp on food because after paying the tanker mafia for water they simply had no money left. “Do I buy vegetables for Rs.100 or a 200-litre drum of water for Rs.100,” she asked.
She was among the hundreds of people, all residents of Deoli constituency, who protested outside the DJB’s pumping station in Greater Kailash as their area had no water supply for five days.
“The DJB officials have stopped the tankers to Deoli because they claim a driver was beaten up in Sangam Vihar. What is the fault of the people of Deoli? They are only targeting us as we are with the Aam Aadmi Party and we are raising the public’s problems,” said Deoli MLA Prakash, who led the dharna.
Deoli and the neighbouring Ambedkar Nagar and Sangam Vihar constituencies are largely made of unauthorised colonies which have no access to piped water. The DJB provides tankers which, the residents claim, are scant and unreliable.
“Very often the DJB officials say they have lost the cards that allow them to take water from filling points or that the tanker has a puncture. They find any excuse not to deliver water to the people who need it as they then sell it for double the rate in the market,” alleged Mr. Prakash.
While raising slogans, the residents said they were being neglected as they were economically weak. “The driver who was beaten in Sangam Vihar was actually selling the water for Rs.2,000. Seven tankers leave from here with our names on it, but only one or two reach,” said another Tigri resident Ravi.
The protesters blamed collusion between the DJB officials and the private tanker mafia for the problem.
“They leave us with no option so we have to buy from the private tankers. It is basically extortion,” added Ravi.
Also present at the protest was Ambedkar Nagar MLA Ashok Kumar Chauhan, who said people in his constituency were also suffering. The AAP MLA said the irony of the situation was that “pipelines from the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant passed right next to the protesters’ jhuggis”.
“Our fight is for water, it is not a political one. The public is fed up with the water situation and they are coming to us for help,” Mr. Chauhan said when asked why his party was involved in the protest.
The DJB CEO, Vijay Kumar, spoke with the Deoli MLA on Monday evening and convinced him to suspend the protest for now. The residents said they would be back on Tuesday if no action was taken. Though the CEO was unavailable for comment, a Board member, Sandeep Tanwar, admitted that there were huge problems with the tanker service. “There are not enough tankers as the DJB has decided to rely on new stainless steel vehicles and has parked its old tractors and trolleys,” Mr. Tanwar said.
He added that the DJB’s summer action plan, announced last month, should have made special arrangements to use the tractors and trolleys to tide over the peak demand.
Meanwhile, traffic on the BRT corridor was hit from 11 a.m. to about 5 p.m. as the protesters blocked the south-bound carriageway. An elderly protester, Akbar, said: “We know people have been inconvenienced by our protest, but they are our brothers and sisters so they have to understand that we are suffering from thirst.”
