: What the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has done so far and how it plans to prevent water shortage in the hot summer months will be revealed in its annual summer action plan, which will be released later this week.
The plan includes details of the preventive maintenance carried out at its water treatment plants, an analysis of complaints from the past year to spot crisis areas, usage of tankers, and contingency plans.
DJB chairperson Kapil Mishra said on Monday that the summer action plan will be released in two to three days.
“We have been working round-the-clock to ensure that Delhiites are not inconvenienced during the summer, the plan will set out our agenda,” said Mr. Mishra.
He added that 250 new water tankers will be added to the DJB’s fleet, taking the total to 950. These tankers are currently awaiting registration, and are likely to be pressed into service in May.
This year, the DJB will be aiming to maintain an average water supply of 900 million gallons per day (MGD). In last year’s summer action plan, the target was 845 MGD and the DJB managed to reach a peak of 902 MGD apart from maintaining an average of 890 MGD.
Summer 2015 was the best that Delhi’s water utility has seen. The commissioning of Munak Canal added 90 MGD to the supply and three new water treatment plants also began operation.
This year, however, 217 new colonies have been added to the piped network, and another 12 will be added next month. This is expected to increase the burden on the system, posing a challenge for the DJB to maintain supply of 900 MGD.
Though DJB has a bigger supply now, over 200 colonies have been added to the piped network
