FRONT PAGE | Thursday, July 2, 2009 | Email | Print | 
Riding DJB’s failure, tanker mafia earns Rs 2 cr a day
Durgesh Nandan Jha | New Delhi
Though aspiring to be a global city by 2010, Delhi cannot do without water smugglers. Due to rapid urban development, unplanned and uncontrolled growth of unauthorised colonies and annual influx of migrants, water supply infrastructure in the Capital has come under severe pressure. As per Delhi Jal Board’s own account, supply of water remains restricted mainly to the planned sector. Even today, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has a total of around 17 lakh registered water connections. Against a demand of over 950 million gallons per day (MGD) of water, the supplying agency provides about 806 million gallons per day (MGD), of which 20 per cent is lost in transit. The scarcity of water created thereof is met by water mafias. According to an investigation done by The Pioneer, this mafia was carrying out illegal trade in water to the tune of Rs 500 crore per year.
“We give connections only to people living in planned colonies. They come to us with a plan, we have to check the requirement and viability of providing the required supply of water before giving connection,” said a DJB spokesperson. She said that in the non-planned sector, water is provided through tankers. “And that is completely on humanitarian grounds,” she added. Expectedly so, most of the non-planned sector — residential areas like the unauthorised colonies, slums and jhuggi-jhopdis, resettlement colonies, extended abaadi in Lal Dora areas and commercial infrastructure — are dependent on illegally mined private bore wells and tube wells. Despite groundwater having depleted to an alarming 85-metre in the national Capital, the unrestricted water extraction is being done by private agencies who count on DJB’s failure to make money by selling water. Every summer, the demand for water in Delhi shoots up by 4.5 crore litres — this is met by the water mafia that reportedly earns Rs 1.5-Rs 2 crore every day.
In south and south west Delhi — where groundwater depletion is highest, there is maximum illegal boring of water. Villages in Mehrauli and Chhattarpur areas and unauthorised colonies of Sangam Vihar and Tuglaqabad are full of private bore wells from where water tankers carry their supplies. There are shops of water suppliers lined up across the markets of these urbanised villages. Farm houses too have private bore wells. “In Sangam Vihar area, most of the houses have private bore wells but in summers many of them get dry. People then buy water from private water suppliers — who have their bore wells dug deep — and charge anywhere between Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 for one tanker. For commercial usage, the charge is higher,” said Ramesh Bidhuri, BJP MLA from Tuglaqabad. He said that pouches of water — sold at Re one per packet — is mostly in use by workers and shopkeepers in the locality. Okhla industrial area has units from where packaged water is supplied to various regions.
DJB has, as per its Summer Action Plan 2009, 182 departmental vehicles for west Delhi and an equal number of hired vehicles, in north and central Delhi they claim to have 118 departmental vehicles and 87 hired ones and in south Delhi they claim to have 240 departmental vehicles. Apart from the number of vehicles being insufficient, what perturbs more is that many of the vehicles are reportedly not in working condition.
Moreover, due to leakages at various places and high concentration of ammonia in them, it is not fit for drinking.
"Most of the commercial establishments in posh areas like South Extension, Green Park, Kamla Nagar Market, Vikaspuri and Laxmi Nagar are dependent on purified groundwater which is packaged in small jars and bottles. The DJB water is either not available or people prefer it for drinking purposes due to reports of chemical excess in them," said Sanjay Kumar, who runs an agency for supply of bottled water. Over the years, there have been many kinds of bottled water suppliers that sell water at high rates despite there being no check on their quality.
In Sainik Farm area, bore wells have caused the water table to drop to 250 feet. Legally, all the bore wells and tube wells need to be registered with the Central Ground Water Authority. However, sources said there are more than two lakh unregistered ones. The police have failed to check this illegal business and Government continues to look the other way for its failure in fulfilling the water needs of the Capital, that is over 1,350 million gallons each day. Delhi Jal Board supplies only 650 to 670 million gallons. The difference in supply is drawn from the groundwater.
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