Munak Canal will help end water crisis, says Sheila (The Hindu 05 July 2012)

To overcome the shortage of drinking water in the Capital, the Delhi Government is keen on commissioning the Munak Canal as this would result in saving of 80 million gallons per day of raw water and thus enable functioning of three water treatment plants which are lying idle for lack of required raw water at present, said Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit here on Wednesday.

Addressing a Bhagidari workshop at Talkatora Stadium, she said that with the commissioning of the Dwarka, Okhla and Bawana water treatment plants it is expected that several parts of the city like Dwarka which are facing shortage of drinking water would get the desired relief.

On the power supply scenario, the Chief Minister said her government has tied up for adequate supply to meet the rising power demand. She said managerial competence has been displayed to meet the highest demand ever recorded in Delhi which now stands over 5400 MW.

In the area of health facilities, Ms. Dikshit said emergency facilities are expected to improve now with the induction of 70 more ambulance vans and opening of about 100 dialysis centres.

The Chief Minister also raised the issue of public hygiene and said the South Delhi Corporation has been told to construct more public utilities in markets and crowded places under its jurisdiction. She said it was time to overcome the existing deficiencies in sanitation and cleanliness.

The Delhi Government is keen on commissioning the Munak Canal as this would result in saving of 80 million gallons per day of raw water, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said on Wednesday: Page 4

CM asks DJB CEO to be more vigilant (Hindustan Times 05 July 2012)

The Hindustan Times’ series on poor water management at the pumping stations at Vasant Kunj and RK Puram has forced the DJB to swing into action.   On Wednesday, entry to the filling station of both depots was barred for public and everything looked streamlined.

Water tankers were seen standing in queues and no water was wasted when tankers were being filled.
HT reports have also led to the chief minister instructing the DJB to crack down on its corrupt employees.
“I have seen your campaign and asked Debashree (DJB CEO) about it. She told me there were problems at some places where our own staff was playing truant. I have told her to be more vigilant and also take action against the staff responsible,” said chief minister Sheila Dikshit.
On Tuesday, HT had reported that people had been filling water from the RK Puram depot and selling it to nearby areas.
At the Vasant Kunj depot, hundreds of gallons of water was being wasted while filling tankers.

Water woes: Tales of wastage, apathy (Hindustan Times 05 July 2012)

After HT exposed water mismanagement at the hands of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) staff, the board is receiving brickbats from all quarters.   The chief minister has asked the DJB CEO to be more vigilant. Experts too have condemned the board for wasting potable water.

Dr Pankaj Mehta, who teaches Environmental Science at Amity University, said "The leakages at pumping stations need to be plugged at the source. The DJB should also harvest every single drop so wasted to recharge the ground water."
Distribution losses have already been pegged to be between 30-50%. At a seminar last month, the chief minister too admitted that 42% water is lost during distribution.
But HT's 'Raid the Office' series points out that the losses could be more.
Perhaps that is why the Centre for Science and Environment's (CSE) latest report 'Excreta Matters' says the agency is one of the country's worst performing entities in terms of coverage and water losses.
"Our report pegs DJB's water losses at a whopping 52% - more than half the available water is wasted. Its officials add slum consumption in this loss.
But our survey showed that slums consume hardly 10% of the water," said Nitya Jacob, CSE's Director (Water).
During its visits to three pumping stations in south Delhi, HT had found that lakhs of gallons of water were being wasted away. Large taps used to fill tankers were never shut off.
The tankers too were old and wasted water during transit and at the consumer end. Not to mention, the old and rusty pipelines - a perennial source of wastage.
Ravi Agrawal of NGO Toxic Links lambasted the DJB's 'distribution' problem. "It is not 'shortage of water' that Delhi is facing, but more of a 'distribution' problem," he said. DJB needs more efficiency and transparency at its pumping stations, Agrawal added.  
Citizens too criticised the jal board for its apathy. "The amount of water that gets leaked from tankers and pumping stations till the delivery point can meet a day's demand for an average-size locality. Why can't they buy new tankers?" wondered R Shreeram, a resident of C-block Vasant Kunj. 
Case Study
Relying on tankers for 10 yrs
Vasant Kunj
The Maliks of B-block, Vasant Kunj, have been relying on water from DJB tankers for over a decade now.
This part of the dry south Delhi locality hardly gets any running tap water and residents have to get their tanks filled from water tankers.
"We get very little tap water. So to meet our demand, we have to call DJB tankers," said Reena Malik, a resident of B-Block Vasant Kunj.
The situation is the same for other parts of Vasant Kunj. "Nothing changes even after media highlights a problem.
The Delhi government has failed at all fronts," said retired wing commander Mathur, a resident of Vasant Kunj.
Hardly a kilometre away from this locality, the DJB pumping station is brimming with water.
Here, children take showers, tankers get washed and gallons go down the drain, literally, due to the sheer carelessness of DJB employees. HTC

Civic body not prepared for monsoon: Court (Hindustan Times 5 July 2012)

The Delhi high court on Wednesday reprimanded the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) — now split into three corporations — for not living up to its claims of speedy progress in de-silting the Capital’s drains A bench of acting chief justice AK Sikri and justice Rajiv Sahai AK Sikri and justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw made it clear to the civic agency that their work should not be confined to false claims on paper, but should be felt by the public in the form of roads free of waterlogging, which causes havoc every year.

“What status report? We know what happens every year during monsoon,” the bench told Maninder Acharya, MCD counsel. 
The comments came when Acharya countered a PIL filed by NGO Nyaya Bhoomi seeking an end to the problem of waterlogging by saying: “We take many steps to de-silt drains in the city every year and file periodic status reports. This year also we have filed a detailed status report.”
The NGO’s lawyer, Gaurav Bansal, alleged that the MCD and Public Works Department (PWD) had done nothing significant after 1998 to properly de-silt drains, which was causing waterlogging on major roads after even the slightest of rain.
Bansal, in his petition, submitted a list of 41 waterlogging-prone areas in the Capital based on an RTI reply he got from the PWD recently.
It included Ashram Chowk, South Extension Part-I, DPS Road, Mathura Road, ISBT Kashmere Gate, RTR Marg near Moti Bagh flyover, Siri Fort Road, Dhaula Kuan under pass,  and under passes around Dwarka.

Rain plays truant, only light drizzle in capital (Times of India 05 July 2012)

NEW DELHI: Just when conditions seemed ripe for a good shower, the monsoon disappointed Delhi once again with only a light and brief drizzle in isolated parts of the city.

As humidity levels touched an unbearable 73% on Wednesday, accompanied by a day temperature of 41.2 degrees, the Met department said that there are still chances of light rain in the next three days.

"The monsoon has finally started progressing again but its current is not as strong as we had expected. It should have by now covered more parts of northwest India than it has done so far. There are still chances of rain in Delhi over the next three to four days but this will only be light rain. Heavy rains are not expected right now," said Dr RC Vashisht of the IMD.

On Wednesday, the monsoon had progressed into some parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh and covered all of Maharashtra. Rainfall on Wednesday for the country stood at 137.8mm, 70% of the normal rainfall for the season till now. Officials added that a light drizzle had fallen over some parts of the city since Tuesday because of which a light cool breeze also persisted for some part of Wednesday.

"The rise in humidity is due to moisture laden easterly winds that are blowing from the Bay of Bengal. No deep depressions can be seen right now, the absence of which is not giving the desired push to the monsoon system. Only cyclonic circulations are present. The monsoon trough is also located more southwards than is beneficial for northwest India. Once this trough moves higher north, which we are expecting will happen in another day or so, northwest India will also start getting rain," said a Met official.

Delhi recorded a minimum temperature of 29.2 degrees on Wednesday, two degrees above normal. The highest temperature in the city was recorded at Palam which saw a maximum of 43 degrees while Pusa saw the lowest maximum of 38.4 degrees Celsius.

"Heat wave conditions have already abated from UP, Jammu, Himachal and Punjab. They exist in some parts of Rajasthan and Haryana but will abate from there as well in the next couple of days. Temperatures are expected to fall by 2-4 degrees from northwest India by the end of the week while rainfall activity should also pick up here," said a Met official.