With summer settling in the national Capital, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has issued its action plan for the season. In order to meet the rising water demand of the 1.8 crore population, the water utility this time has issued individual action plans for each of the 22 maintenance divisions under it.
Paying special attention to improve efficiencies of its water tanker services, the DJB plans to increase the number of trips to more than 5,000 trips per day in the peak summers as compared to 4,100 trips per day last summer. Besides, the agency has roped in the Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit System (DIMTS) for better monitoring of the movement of tankers. The DIMTS would also be responsible for uploading the schedule of the tankers on DJB’s website to make the tanker delivery service more transparent and efficient.
According to the plan, the board is taking preventive maintenance activities of the water treatment plants and the associated infrastructure works have been completed so that shutdowns are carried-out only in extreme emergency cases. “In order to improve water availability in the water deficient areas, 162 additional tubewells were also installed during the last year. About 80 MGD of groundwater is also being added to the water supply system of the city because of the installation of additional tubewells carried out by DJB,” said Sanjan Chima, spokesperson, DJB.
Presently, there are about 4,400 DJB tubewells and 15 ranney wells are functioning in the system. The Board has also completed three new Underground Reservoirs (UGRs), taking the total number of primary UGRs to 105, in order to rationalise the distribution of water in Delhi. These UGRs at Sultanpur Dabas, Qutab Garh, Ramlila Ground areas will improve the water supply position in the colonies of the North-West District and the Central Delhi area. Moreover, the DJB has also completed the area specific works on interconnections of pipelines, removal of dead ends, flushing of water mains, replacement of old pipelines etc.