The well's run dry

Geeta and her younger brother Bunty spent numerous afternoons fetching water from Delhi Jal Board (DJB) tankers in their SS Nagar colony home in North Delhi's Wazirpur Industrial Area. The adolescent siblings loved doing the chore after they came back from school.

Now, they are fearful.

A week ago, 60-year-old Lal Bahadur was lynched by a group of residents after a dispute over water collection from a tanker took a violent turn. DNA found Bahadur's house locked as the family had gone to their village to perform the last rites, but residents spoke about him.

"He would queue up for tanker water every day. What happened to Bahadur can happen to anyone… people can kill for a bucket of water," says Shabana, who works at a toy factory and lives in the same lane. Politicians visited the colony after the shocker, but nothing is likely to change.

Wazirpur symptomises one of the biggest challenges India's capital has been facing for decades. Seventy per cent of Delhi's water requirements are fulfilled by the Yamuna river that has become a sewage canal in most places. 
The Capital gets water diverted from the river to a parallel Western Yamuna Canal (WYC) in Haryana. The water is deposited at Palla village in Yamuna and collected at Wazirabad, before it is cleaned up and distributed.

Delhi reels under spiralling water crisis every year, despite the government's claims of putting in place summer action plans. The worst-hit areas have been its pockets in the Southwest (rocky terrain), North floodplains (parched) and Northwest.

The mercury touched 32 degrees Celsius, two notches above the normal, last week. Several colonies such as North Delhi's Wazirabad, Ashok Vihar and Central Delhi's Karol Bagh are facing a crisis. Similarly, areas such as Defence Colony and Amar Colony in South Delhi are getting water supply only once a day.

The city is facing a whopping demand-supply gap of 210 MGD (million gallons a day) of drinking water. The supply is 890 MGD against a peak demand of 1,100 MGD. Delhi has also been fighting a festering battle with Haryana over Yamuna water share.

However, experts say Delhi does not actually have a water (availability) crisis. The crisis is of supply. There is no equity in distribution. Delhi is still dependent on a water supply system developed in the 1930s. Without a policy, the water sector remains mired in ad-hocism.

Leakages account for 40 per cent of the total water produced. And the city's water utility has not been able to fix the problem. "London loses 26 per cent of its drinking water to leakages," said a senior DJB officer. "But the city has already prepared a master plan for 2050. It is making investments accordingly to plug the leakages. We're still living in an old world."

According to DJB's own estimates, hundreds of areas are vulnerable. They include: Trilokpuri, Laxmi Nagar, Pandav Nagar, Ganesh Nagar, Budh Vihar, Krishna Vihar, Mehrauli, Rajokri, Kailashpuri Extension in Dwarka, Masjid Moth and Ballimaran.

DJB supplies water from surface and groundwater sources through a network comprising 11,350-km-long pipelines. But there is no dearth of parched pockets, even in localities which are in better shape. For example, over 3.5 million people in Dwarka, built 26 years ago, are forced to source 80 per cent of their water needs from private players because of a demand-supply gap of 10 MGD.

Move away from planned colonies, and the situation is even worse. Of the 3.65 million households in Delhi, as much as 20 per cent, mostly in poor settlements, have no piped water connections. There, tankers lead to clashes. Illegal borewells are depleting groundwater levels to further dangerous levels.

Water is as elusive in all 757 slum clusters registered with the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board. The situation is no better in Delhi's 1,642 registered unauthorised colonies. Clashes over water are commonplace when tankers arrive in pockets such as Sangam Vihar, Aya Nagar and New Ashok Nagar.

Borewells are no solution. An analysis of the last 10 years of data shows that the overall groundwater level is going down by .02 to 1.44 metres per year because of increased extraction and reduced natural recharge. Delhi already has 4.5 lakh borewells, mostly illegal.

In fact, entire Delhi is classified as a dark zone when it comes to extraction of ground water. Water levels in south Delhi areas such as Vasant Kunj, Chhatarpur and CR Park have gone down between 15-30 metres in the last decade.

The Aam Aadmi Party that swept to power in Delhi in 2015 on promises of better water and power supplies has not done enough. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took over the charge of water utility last year, but the situation has not improved.

In January, the level of ammonia in Yamuna shot up to 2.23 parts per million (PPM) against the safe limit of 0.23 PPM, while the DJB only has the mechanism to treat 0.9 PPM of ammonia. This caused Haryana to cut the supply. The water did not reach treatment plants, causing an acute shortage in entire North, West and parts of South and Central Delhi.

Reduced flow is not the only problem. "Pollutants drained in the river from industrial units of Haryana's Panipat and Sonipat make the water dirtier. Insufficient flow does not allow the water to be cleaned naturally," a DJB official said.

DJB vice-chairman Dinesh Mohaniya says they will come up with its summer action plan by March-end instead of the usual June. "We want to be prepared, keeping in view the scarcity we saw in January-February," says Mohaniya, who is also the MLA from South Delhi's Sangam Vihar that has been facing acute shortages. "We have installed piped connections in 208 colonies, where there will be no need for tankers. Also, our focus this time will be on improving maintenance of pipelines and efficient grievance redressal."

He added that the number of tankers needed will reduce automatically. "In areas where tankers are still required, we will improve services and plug leakages so that there is no crisis at all," he says.

DJB officials, he says, have been holding meetings with MLAs to take stock of the situation in every constituency.

Last year, the DJB had launched a fleet of 320 new tankers to boost supply. However, officials said, water mafia is another nexus, which plagues the supply system. "We have started maintenance audits in all areas. We are also looking into some people stealing water from leaking pipelines and selling it at higher prices. We have also approached the police for action," said an official.

CASE STUDIES

WAZIRPUR INDUSTRIAL AREA

Wazirpur Industrial Area has been dependent on water tankers for about five months, as high ammonia levels in water forced DJB to cut short supplies. But residents say water has not reached them even after pipelines were laid by the previous government. They are forced to live on a DJB tanker that is enough only for 100, out of the 1,000 households there.

"Neither the MLA nor the councillor has come to the area after the elections just because we are nothing to them," said Suresh Sharma, who has been living in the area for about three decades.

Residents blame politics for the water shortage in the area. "Across the road lies Ashok Vihar, which gets 24-hour supply but what we get is acidic water, which could not even be used for washing clothes. Only possible reason for the different condition is us being poor," says Suresh.

GOLE MARKET

Gole Market is meant for government employees but thousand lives breathe in Kali Bari's Jhuggi Jhopdi (JJ) area. They accuse authorities of cutting supplies in the area, but not to government quarters.

While water supply to government quarters has been brought down, a regular two-time a day schedule still stands. Residents in the quarters can fill up water tanks. But those in the JJ colony, living just across the road, get water only for about 20 minutes a day.

Residents line up in front of water taps to fill up their utensils, but only a few get water. "Over hundred people gather in front of water taps from as early as about 5 in morning, but when water arrives, there is chaos. In 20 minutes, we cannot even fill water for drinking, let aside bathing and cooking," says Raghu Singh.

SHADIPUR

Lost in the shadow of posh Patel Nagar, Shadipur is home to over 10,000 families, but water supply can barely satisfy the needs of about 1,000 residents. With water arriving just once in two days, residents rely on packaged water bottles costing about rupees 30 per 20 litres.

"We have been using about three bottles a day for cooking, drinking and even in our toilets, but DJB will not understand our suffering," said Hazarilal, pointing to a web of damaged pipes installed by DJB.

The area has suffered water shortage for a few months, but the situation has deteriorated in the last week with soiled water running through the taps after many dry days. Residents have reduced consumption and wear unwashed clothes and live in unhygienic conditions. They have also complained about lack of proper infrastructure for water distribution. DJB has installed underground pipes, but never checked for maintenance.

WHEN EVERY DROP COUNTS

1,100 MGD is Delhi’s water demand

890 MGD is the supply

210 MGD is the gap Delhi is facing 

11,350 km is DJB’s supply network

1,100 slum clusters, unauthorised colonies worst hit

70% of Delhi’s water needs are met from dirty Yamuna

40% of total water produced is lost to leakages — theft & mismanagement  

20% of Delhi is not linked to piped supplies

CRISIS BEGINS

Other problems

• Delhi’s fighting a festering battle with Haryana over Yamuna water shares, rising levels of ammonia is another problem. 
   
• Several colonies such as North Delhi’s Wazirabad, Ashok Vihar and Central Delhi’s Karol Bagh are facing a crisis. Similarly, areas such as Defence Colony and Amar Colony in South Delhi are getting supply only once a day. 

Big solution

• 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

Clashes over water 

• Frequent in pockets such as Sangam Vihar, Aya Nagar and New Ashok Nagar.

Delhi’s dark zone 

• Water levels in Vasant Kunj, Chhatarpur and CR Park have gone down between 15-30 metres in the last decade.

4.5 lakh Borewells’ Delhi has, mostly illegal