Look Beyond Rivers

​​The mercury is climbing. These are the dog days of summer. Delhi is again facing acute water shortages — one of the biggest challenges it has been grappling with for decades. The worst-hit areas have been its pockets in the Southwest (rocky terrain), North floodplains (parched) and Northwest. 

In such times, the Yamuna is always in focus. And it’s natural to some extent, because the river, despite being nothing better than a sewage canal at some places, meets about 70 per cent of Delhi’s water needs. And this is where the main problem has always been.  

For, till about a century ago, the city did not depend directly on the Yamuna to meet its water needs. It was more for recreation, rituals, cargo transportation, and a source of livelihood for farmers, fishers, mallahs, washermen, pujaris and swimmers​/divers​. 

Historian-filmmaker Sohail Hashmi says the river water was probably not potable in Delhi even before it began to be choked with sewage and industrial waste. 

“It had mica seams embedded in the Aravali’s quartzite rocks. The ancients must have noticed the prevalence of some illnesses among those who consumed the water. They must have begun to avoid it. This knowledge must have been in the public realm, and perhaps because of this, each of Delhi’s seven cities dug deep wells, built step wells and created large ponds to trap rainwater,” he says. Folk songs in the adjoining Brij region still mention: "Jamunaji ka paani kahro laage."  

Creation of water bodies

Mehrauli met its water needs from water bodies like Hauz-i-Shamsi, built by Iltutmish (1211-1236), and Naulakha Nala, known more for its stink in what is today South Delhi’s Defence Colony, as well as other streams which emerged from the ridge. 

Alauddin Khalji (1296-1316) built a reservoir, today known as Hauz Khas, to supply water to the garrison town at Siri. It was fed by streams, some running through what is today the IIT-Delhi campus. Later, Feroz Shah Tuglaq built a madrasa. Today, the complex lies behind Hauz Khas Village that houses designer shops and glitzy restaurants. Hauz Khas dried in 1960. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage or INTACH revived it with treated sewage water. “This led to the return of aquatic birds, and significant groundwater recharge,” says Manu Bhatnagar, who heads INTACH’s Natural Heritage division.  

Rulers and local village heads created water bodies and local communities maintained and managed them. “Lakes abounded in Delhi. Many of these were courtesy the streams that originated from the ridge to meet the river. There were also dugwells — bigger wells that also met small-scale irrigation needs. Wetlands that worked as aquifers were preserved,” says river expert Manoj Misra. 

The first and the second cities — Lal Kot and Tughlaqabad — were located on the Aravalis and relied on large water bodies or deep wells and step wells. Siri (third) created Hauz Khas and Jahanpanah (fourth) built Satpula. The rest three cities — Ferozeabad (today’s Ferozeshah Kotla) Deenpanah (Purana Quila) and Shahjahanabad (Purani Dilli) — were located on the west bank of the Yamuna. 

“These three Delhi cities are surrounded by high walls, virtually blocking off the river. Purana Quila is actually on a hill with no clear access to the river,” says Hashmi, well-known for immersive heritage walks he conducts. 

Tughluq- and Mughal-era canals serviced Shahjahanabad. Sahibi Nadi, or today’s Najafgarh Drain in southwest Delhi, was another source of water. Ferozeshah Tughlaq (1351-1388) built a canal to bring water to his city from what is now Haryana’s Hisar. He also built a huge baoli or step well that still has plenty of water. The unfinished canal was completed and brought to Shahjahanabad by the engineers of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan (1628-1658). 

In those days, floating populations of traders and labourers stayed in roadside inns such as Sarai Rohilla, Lado Sarai, Katwaria Sarai, Yusuf Sarai, Sheikh Sarai, Kalu Sarai, Jia Sarai and Ber Sarai. They met their drinking water needs from baolis. “Anywhere in Delhi, you didn’t have to go deeper than 3-4 metres to find water,” says Misra, who has been espousing environment causes in courts. 

The beginning of an end

A row of wells sunk in the Yamuna’s riverbed started feeding Delhi’s first Water Works at Chandrawal near Civil Lines’s famed Metcalfe House. The year was 1890, and the water extracted was 1 million gallons a day (MGD). “The British saw revenue generation opportunities in water management and took away community rights,” says Misra. 

In 1921, a raw water pumping station was set up in North Delhi’s Wazirabad to take 7 MGD of water directly from the river. By 1948, this increased to 35 MGD. Rapid urbanisation in subsequent decades began killing water bodies. This led to scarcity for consumptive usage, and the state began mismanaging the resource. While building New Delhi, the British actually filled and then covered more than 500 dug wells, many believe. 1960 onwards, with more and more water diversions, the river started drying, and turning into a black noxious thread during the lean season. This was despite thousands of crores of rupees spent on faulty clean-up plans since the 1990s.

Today, the city receives 850 MGD of water from two main sources — Western Yamuna Canal that brings Yamuna and also Satluj waters, and Ganga Canal that feeds mostly east Delhi. (More water consumption meant more sewage production. Half of Delhi has anyway been outside any sewerage network. The river had to die — both biologically and culturally. “It has taken us a little more than 100 years to kill a river that has irrigated these fertile plains for at least 60 million years,” says Hashmi.) 

Officials still say the city is facing a massive demand-supply gap of 210 MGD of drinking water. Water utility Delhi Jal Board's supply through a network comprising 11,350-km-long pipelines is 930 MGD — it includes water from ranney wells and tubewells. But this should be sufficient. Delhi does not actually have a crisis of availability of water. The crisis is of supply. Leakages account for 45 per cent of the total water produced. There is no equity in distribution. Of the 3.65 million households in Delhi, as much as 20 per cent, mostly in poor settlements, have no piped water connections. There, supplies through tankers lead to clashes. "At 50 gallons per person per day, Delhi is actually flush with fresh water. We have mismanaged both fresh and used water resources," says Misra.    

Bhatnagar says rapid concretisation has extinguished hundreds of water bodies and degraded the catchment of those left. Now, there are hardly any wells, ponds and lakes to hold rainwater. “Of the 1,200-odd bodies at the turn of the 20th century, Only 480, whether dry or wet, remain, mostly in rural west Delhi,” he says. “We have killed every single water body that gave us potable water and replenished the sub-soil water,” says Hashmi. 

Borewells looked like an easy option. And they have pushed groundwater levels to dangerous depths. Delhi is the third most overexploited groundwater state in India after Punjab and Rajasthan, the Centre informed Parliament in March. The government placed a report that said 56 per cent of Delhi’s aquifers were overexploited. Levels at some places in south and southwest Delhi have gone 20 to 30 metres below the ground level, according to the Delhi government’s economic survey released in March. The water is not fit for human consumption, the survey also said. 

Delhi has some 4.5 lakh borewells, mostly illegal. Authorities have failed to take effective action against those running them, despite repeated orders from the National Green Tribunal. “The situation was fine till we used handpumps. Tubewells wreaked havoc,” says Misra. In the 1970s, there were 201 stormwater drains that together combined into 22 outfalls into the river. They infused life into the Yamuna. ​Many ​of them have been lost to construction. The remaining are carrying sewage. 

The way forward

All experts are unanimous that Delhi must revive its water bodies, ensure groundwater recharge through storm drains, store rainwater, and recycle and reuse its waste water. “About 600 MGD of waste water, if fully treated, recycled and reused instead of getting dumped untreated or partially treated into the Yamuna, can give the city a huge water surplus,” Misra says. 

Bhalaswa on the Yamuna floodplains is Delhi’s largest surviving lake. After the floods of 1964, an embankment isolated the oxbow lake from the Yamuna, its source of water. When the northern arm dried, the administration used that part of the depression for what it is today a landfill site. “The remaining 47 hectares is also polluted, by an adjacent dairy colony and becomes dry in summers. A plan for the lake’s revival has been on paper,” says Bhatnagar, who has been heading programmes to revive and conserve water bodies in the national capital. 

East Delhi’s Sanjay Lake in 17 hectares is suffering similarly. It is filled with tubewells that empty the aquifer exposing the precious groundwater to evaporation losses. INTACH’s plan of bringing water from a treatment plant and cleaning it further in baffle reactors and wetlands remains partially implemented. 

Najafgarh Jheel, in 225 sqkm at the end of the 19th century, has been drained out by the construction of a drain and the destruction of the upstream Sahibi Nadi channel. In the floods of 1958, the lake’s spread attained 145 sqkm. After the floods of 1964, Delhi came up with a protective embankment on its side preventing lake formation on Delhi’s side. This embankment was overtopped in the floods of 1978. Now a ghost of the Jheel remains on the Gurugram side still visited by flamingoes and other winter migrants. “If INTACH’s plans to revive the Jheel to cover a 7-sqkm spread are implemented, it would be a major source of water supply and a biodiversity resource,” says Bhatnagar. 

Saving such lakes are crucial because Delhi has also been fighting a festering battle with upper riparian Haryana over Yamuna water shares. It is not unlikely that other states like UP and Uttarakhand, struggling with their own rising water needs, may squeeze Ganga water supplies to Delhi. The national capital can hope to survive only by looking inwards. 

Hauz Khas Lake was built by Alauddin Khalji to supply water to the garrison town at Siri 

THE BUILDERS

• Alauddin Khalji built a reservoir, today known as Hauz Khas, to supply water to Siri Fort. It was fed by streams, some running through what is today IIT-Delhi
   
• Mehrauli got water from water bodies like Hauz-i-Shamsi, built by Iltutmish, and Naulakha Nala, known more for its stink in what is today Defence Colony
   
• Ferozeshah Tughlaq built a canal to bring water from Hisar. He also built a huge baoli or step well that still has plenty of water
   
• The unfinished canal was completed and brought to Shahjahanabad or Purani Dilli by the engineers of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan

BIG WATER BUMPERS

930 MGD of water Delhi govt supplies from Western Yamuna Canal that brings Yamuna and also Satluj waters, and Ganga Canal that feeds mostly east Delhi. This also includes water from ranney wells and tubewells. 

210 MGD shortage is still shown by officials, often blamed for mismanagement 

45% of total water produced is lost to leakages, experts say

20% of Delhi’s 3.65 million households, mostly in poor settlements, have no piped water connections  

1,200 Water bodies Delhi had at the turn of the 20th century

480 whether dry or wet, remain, mostly in rural west Delhi

201 stormwater drains the city had in 1970s. Many of them are gone 

56% of Delhi’s aquifers overexploited 

4.5L tubewells the city has. Most of them are illegal