Beneath the technical nitty-gritties of the water supply in the national capital lies an ugly socio-economic disparity
Children find some respite from the summer heat in Delhi, as they cool off under water flowing from an unfinished pipeline into a drain. Photo: Vikas Choudhary/CSE
In the wake of the ongoing shortage of water in the national capital,the Supreme Court had recently ordered Himachal Pradesh to release 137 cusecs of water — which is approximately 28.3 litres of flow per second — to be released into the Hathnikund barrage.
Following this, on June 12, the Supreme Court directed the Delhi government to file an affidavit with regards to the “measures it had taken to prevent water wastage amidst acute water crisis during the ongoing heat wave”.
Also, the vacation bench of the Supreme Court sought a response from the Delhi government on the issue of theft and loss of water. In his response, the lawyer representing the Delhi government assured that all the water tankers supplying water are operated by Delhi Jal Board.
It is important to note that controlling wastage of water requires identifying high usage consumers who can then be mandated to reduce their consumption, replacing good quality water with treated wastewater for horticulture, construction and industry usage and curtailing certain uses such as washing cars.
An advisory was issued by the Delhi government for reducing water use for car washing and other such wasteful consumption. However, more stringent measures are needed, for which there does not seem to be adequate preparedness or sufficient action and enforcement.
It is the need of the hour to assess heavy personal usage of water and set upper limits or controls on water use, especially in peak summer months. Also, protocols and preparedness, more intensive monitoring of compliance, monitoring of leakages and water losses from supply lines is desperately needed in Delhi.
The latent crisis
Hidden behind the numbers and the political tussle of blame-game between the Centre and the state, disparity forms the crux of the water crisis in the capital.
There is also the highly unequal distribution of the water supply across Delhi and the hardship faced by the less privileged city dwellers of our unplanned and informal settlements, when summer comes.
A study by the Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) on the challenges of water supply, sanitation and water management of the dense, unplanned settlement of Sangam Vihar in south Delhi showed an extremely low volume of 45 litres per person a day water supply for this million plus settlement.
The entire rim of bordering settlements in Delhi has several such large dense unplanned settlements and it is these settlements that will bear the brunt of the water crisis. Since these settlements are at the tail end of city water supply main lines, they will not get water in times of an imminent need.
Therefore, addressing the water crisis in Delhi is about addressing the water supply challenges of these urban settlements.
Hence, bringing more water from rivers and reservoirs outside Delhi may not lead to the desired outcome of improvement in the water supply. What is needed is a reimagining and reconfiguring of internal water supply and also how we deal with treated wastewater.
A decentralised water supply and decentralised sewage treatment plants (STPs) in the city will build the foundation of making the national capital more resilient to heat and climate change-related water stress.
A unified approach needed
Instead of the political tussle, this is the time when all parties need to sit together and explore that decentralised water supply and wastewater treatment are needed for Delhi.
In total, Delhi has 37 STPs that treat nearly 1,000 million gallons of wastewater on a daily basis and the national capital is obligated to return around 400 million gallons of treated water into Yamuna.
The rest of the treated water presents a re-use opportunity.
A part of this is already being re-used for gardening and irrigation. However, we now need to take lessons from Bengaluru and identify re-use of treated water for recharging ground water, and with an additional tertiary treatment.
The CSE study of Sangam Vihar water woes has highlighted the potential of creating decentralised and dedicated sources of water supply in two locations in a 10-15 km radius, from where treated waste water can be harnessed to contribute to its assured water supply augmentation.
Delhi can use large lakes around the Yamuna floodplains and in the Aravallis, as water recharge sources. Using treated wastewater for recharging these lakes, and developing tertiary treated water for dedicated supply to several dense unplanned settlements, new water can be created for supplying to our large dense unplanned settlements. That can be an alternative to relying on more and more water supply from neighbouring states. Delhi can show the way to the rest of India on addressing its water deficiencies, making our cities more climate- and water-resilient, and also secure justice and equity in water supply.
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