Soon around 16 resettlement colonies and unauthorised settlements in Delhi will be able to withdraw water from ‘water ATMs’ by paying a token amount of 30 paise through a smart card.
The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has given approval to set up 280 water dispensing units in various areas to address water shortage problem in the city, especially in JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies.
The project is already running in Savda Ghevra, a resettlement colony in Southwest Delhi.
The colony has a decentralised water treatment plant to extract groundwater which then is purified through reverse osmosis (RO) system and then provided to the people through 15 water ATM kiosks.
The residents are currently drawing one litre of water from 2 water dispensing units installed at the plant by paying 15 paise and from 13 other kiosks at the cost of 30 paise using smart cards, called ‘Sarvajal’ cards.
The DJB will now implement the project in other colonies, which face an acute shortage of water.
“The project was very well received by the residents of the Savda Ghevra colony and had also earned appreciation from the Queen of the Netherlands in her visit to Delhi.Encouraged by the success of the model, it was decided to replicate it in other parts of the city with 280 ATMs located at unauthorised colonies and JJ clusters,” the Delhi Jal Board said in a statement.
The areas identified for installation of plant are Khyala, Vishnu Garden, Patel Nagar, Ranjit Marg, Narayan Vihar, Mahipalpur Dabas, Nithari, Burari, Jindpur, Ibrahimpur, Shadipur, Okhla Vihar, Hamidpur, Bahrauli, Tikrikhurd, and Bindapuri.
“It is estimated that about 29 decentralised R O based plants can be installed at various locations across Delhi on design, build, finance, operate and transfer (DBFOT) basis,” it said.
Water Minister and DJB chairperson Kapil Mishra said during the board’s meeting,
“This summer the water situation has improved drastically. It has been the special focus of the Delhi government to ensure easy access to potable water to the maximum number of people in Delhi,” he said.
“We want to bring more areas into the piped water supply network, especially those which are presently being served by our tanker services,” he added.
In an attempt to bring transparency in board’s working and involve all stakeholders, Mishra announced that the agenda and minutes of the meeting will be put on the DJB’s website.
The board also gave approval to the work of laying water pipelines in Begumpur Extension at a total estimated cost of Rs 4.82 crore.
At present, the DJB is providing drinking water to this colony through tankers.
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