Eros TimesDELHI:EROS TIMES: The Delhi government launched one of the biggest projects for augmentation of water supply in the city at Chandrawal on Monday.
The Chief Minister and Delhi Jal Board Chairman, Arvind Kejriwal laid the foundation stone for the project, along with Cabinet Minister Rajendra Pal Gautam, the DJB V-C Dinesh Mohaniya and CEO DJB Nikhil Kumar. After leading the Bhoomi poojan ceremony, CM, Arvind Kejriwal addressed the gathering.
CM, Arvind Kejriwal reiterated his government’s commitment to supply clean and potable piped water 24×7 to every single household of Delhi.
He reiterated his aim saying our mission is to make RO filters, tankers redundant by making universal coverage of tap water supply a reality.
Speaking about the project, he said, “The government is launching the construction of a 47.7 crore liter water treatment plant at Chandrawal today which will help supply clean drinking water 24×7 to 22 lakh people living in the command area of this plant, that is, the people of Chandni Chowk, Rajendra Nagar, Civil Lines, Patel Nagar, Karol Bagh, New Delhi, among others.”
When the government was elected 4.5 years ago, Delhi’s water supply was woefully inadequate and ridden with irregularities; however, the scenario has changed in the last four and half years.
“In 2015, we inherited a 70 year old system that was completely mismanaged, corrupt and exploitative of people.
I am happy to share that over the last four and half years, with the engineers and officials of the Delhi Jal Board we have significantly improved the management of the system.”
The CM credited the DJB for working with the government towards fixing the system.
Sharing the highlights of the progress made by his government, CM Kejriwal said, “In 2015 only 58% of Delhi’s colonies were connected to the piped water network.
The rest of the colonies would get water through tankers. We all know how powerful and large the tanker mafia was.
The mafia survived because of the political nexus and patronage.
But we liberated the water management system from the clutches of the mafia because we are an honest government.
We don’t use water to earn money, we use it to earn goodwill and blessings.”
“Today after just four and half years, the number of colonies with piped water supply has gone from 58% to 88%. It took 70 years to get to 58% and just 4.5 years to add 30% more colonies. There is still work to be done.
There are about 200 colonies that still need to be covered. Apart from those colonies where laying pipelines is not feasible, all other colonies will get piped water in the next 2 years and pipelines are being laid for this purpose,” announced the Chief Minister.
Earlier governments would claim that Delhi has a shortage of water and therefore piped water could not be supplied to all parts of the city.
Where did the present government source additional water from? The Chief Minister explained how it was done by saying, “Our engineers have successfully plugged leakage of water and theft has also been controlled to a large extent. With the same amount of water, we have been able to improve the management of water.
Illegal tankers have been cracked down upon.
I am optimistic that by 2024, every single household will have access to 24×7 potable drinking water through taps.”
In the context of the national water crisis, the chief minister said Delhi is planning in advance for any potential issues arising in the future. “Even as the entire country is facing severe shortage of water and riots are breaking out over water scarcity, your government in Delhi is working on a long term solution.
But the time has also come for the allocation of water to Delhi to be enhanced.
The last time Delhi was allocated water was in 1994 when the population of the city was 1.25 crore. Today it is 2.25 crore, but the share of water for Delhi has not been enhanced. We will request the Central government to revise the share for Delhi soon.”
“The other mode through which Delhi is planning on increasing availability of water is through a large scale rain water harvesting program. We are already in the process of creating rain water harvesting capacity in all government buildings including in schools. We have changed building bylaws as well to make it mandatory for rain water harvesting to be done for buildings built on more than 150 sq m land. But even this may not be enough,” he said.
Commenting on the untapped potential of the Yamuna floodplain, CM Shri Kejriwal said, “Delhi has a peak requirement of about 1200 MGD water. During the rains, 6 lakh cusecs of water flows through the Yamuna every day. This is enough water to satisfy Delhi’s needs for an entire year. At the moment we are not utilising this resource. Yamuna’s floodplains are large and porous and we can use this to our advantage to tap into the water that flows in the river during the monsoons.”
“Johads and abolish of Delhi are also being revived on a large scale. 250 such water bodies have been identified and work has begun to revive these, some of which I have already inaugurated.
Even Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) need to be used more effectively,” informed CM Kejriwal.
Assuring the people that the Delhi government is planning for the future, the Chief Minister said, “Despite the water crisis the country is facing, Delhi its should have faith in their government. Delhi is ready for the future.”
Speaking on the occasion, CEO, DJB, Nikhil Kumar said, “We, at DJB, get full support of the Chief Minister.
The whole Delhi Jal Board family is working to fulfil the vision of the Chief Minister.”
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