Water crisis in City, going bad to worse

DRY DAY

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink! This line from a famous poem has become a reality in the national capital nowadays.

Delhi is perpetually in the grip of a water crisis, more so during the dry season, when the situation gets particularly worse. There is no water to drink or even to do regular household chores. Several parts of the city are facing problems in getting adequate water supply at homes.

To add to the crisis the Har­y­ana administration has redu­c­ed Delhi’s water supply. Due to this, the production at two main treatment plants –Haiderpur and Wazirabad - is badly hit.

Swati Lal, a freelance writer who lives in Saket’s Pa­r­y­a­­w­a­r­an Complex is in a fix due to water shortage. “We just cannot rely on Delhi Jal Board for proper supply of water. We don’t get adequate water at home. Only yesterday we ended up calling a tanker which cost us Rs 1000. What else can we do? Water is a necessity,” says Swati despondently.

Supriya Dutta of Lajpat Nagar II seconds Swati and says, “We get water supply for only one-and-a-half hour each day. We are fed up with this issue. When we took up this issue, the area cou­nc­i­l­lor promised to alloca­te tan­k­e­rs every alternate day.”

It is now a distant dream to take a bath in bathtub or take showers for hours. We can only witness this is Bollywood films where actresses are seen playing with ‘rose water’ in a tub. But, in reality, it is time to fight for that one bucket of water each day at public distributions taps. It is frame worth capturing when hundreds of Delhiites stand surrounding tankers just to get their ‘share’ of water.

This kind of scenario in urban settings in usual every year where even people living in posh complexes call in water tankers to supply them with waters. “We residents in our colony pool in money and call these tankers to fetch us water. What options do we have?” says Kshipra Simon, freelance photographer living in Vasant Vihar.

On asking Sanjam Cheema, PRO, Delhi Jal Board, about the crisis, she says, “Water is natural resource and not a renewable resource. The responsibility of the Delhi Jal Board is to treat the water and supply them eventually. We supply 835 million gallons of water per day in Delhi. But, on the other hand it is the duty of the people to handle water with utmost respect care.” She adds, “In summer the problem shoots up definitely but we are putting in constant effort to tackle this issue.

One should also realise that Delhi adds lakhs of outsiders each year, but the supply is the same. There is this one piece of cake which has to be distributed among lakhs of people.”
To help locals facing water shortage, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has started SMS facilities, helpline services and central control rooms. Currently DJB has over 1000 water tankers to fetch water in crisis hit areas.