Jal board eyes monsoon to revive 10 water bodies

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has identified 10 water bodies to be revived in next one month. These are located in South and South West areas of the capital.

The DJB has the working permission from the land owing agencies of the water bodies and the focus would be to revive these 10 during the ongoing monsoon so that the storm water in the rain does not get wasted.

The revival plan has three major components – cleaning of garbage, arrange for the source of water (rainwater in the first phase) and arranging for perennial source of water throughout the year which would require getting the treated water.

Out of the 10 identified water bodies, two are in Dwarka –sector 20 and 22, and others are located in areas such as Mitraon village in Najafgarh, Chhawla, Kangan Heri, Aya Nagar, etc.

“These water bodies have been chosen keeping in mind factors like sufficient amount of land available, no technical hurdle or resistance from population,” a government official said. The officials associated with the project visited the site of the water bodies on Sunday along with scientists from NEERI (National Environmental Engineering Research Institute) and a feasibility report will be prepared after which the work will start.

The capital’s water bodies –lakes, ponds, and step-wells – are dying a slow death with problems like encroachments and sewage plaguing them. The Delhi government had in June set up a high-level committee to look into the matters related to water bodies, under the chairmanship of Public and Works Department (PWD) Minister Satyendar Jain.

In a first of its kind initiative for the national capital, treated water from Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) will be provided throughout the year for these water bodies and the DJB also has plans to set up STPs close to where these are located.

“These water bodies remain dry throughout the year so we have to find a perennial source of water for them. The DJB will provide good quality treated water from STPs after the monsoon is over and where there is no STP, we will either set up new plants or take up online treatment or look for another source of waste water.


The model is there in Mumbai and some other cities but not been done in Delhi so far,” he said. The setting up of treatment plants is concurrent with the DJB’s plan to decentralize the treatment of waste water by putting up small STPs in colonies.

This is, however, a time consuming exercise, the official added. According to Delhi government’s records, there are 971 identified water bodies in the capital, but the figure could well be above 1,000 as some are non-traceable, according to officials. 

Out of the 971, only 250 have water and can come under the ‘clean’ category. Over 300 water bodies are such which have completely dried up and 100 have been taken over by encroachments like buildings, parks and slums, leaving no scope of revival. Moreover, around 150 water bodies are partially encroached which will be taken up for revival. In around 100 water bodies, mostly in villages, sewage flows unmonitored.