As Aam Aadmi Party convener Arvind Kejriwal takes his oath at Ramlila Maidan, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is burning midnight oil to implement the Chief Minister-designate’s “free lifeline water” promise at the earliest. Sources have indicated that the water utility has expedited the process of operationalising Water Treatment Plants (WTPs) at Bawana and Dwarka to ensure up to 70 MGD extra water supply in the Capital for the purpose.
Since the past two days, top officials of the water utility are busy doing calculations on how to make 700 litres of water available to metered households for free and that too on a daily basis — a key point in AAP’s manifesto. On Friday, DJB Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Vijay Kumar held a meeting with officials to compile and create a PowerPoint presentation on the same, which will also have an overview of the water scenario in Delhi.
The first move of the water utility after the AAP takes over as the Government in Delhi will be to commission two defunct WTPs as soon as possible. “Trial runs have been initiated in treatment plants at Dwarka and Bawana. We cannot give a specific time-frame when the commissioning will be done because everything depends on the sample tests of the water generated from there. We cannot compromise with the quality of water at any cost,” said a top official of the DJB.
The WTP at Bawana is capable of supplying 20 million gallons a day (MGD) of water while the one in Dwarka has a capacity of 50 MGD. This scheme, according to AAP, will promote conservation of water by those households who would consciously cut their consumption to reduce their water bills. “It will also facilitate provisioning of piped water and metering those connections in areas that are currently water stressed. The provision of lifeline water shall later be extended to group housing societies as well. This shall be achieved by making bulk allotments based on number of houses, which will incentivise societies to self-regulate their consumption,” Arvind Kejriwal had said during the manifesto release of AAP.