While Arvind Kejriwal and his party leaders turned their free water dream into a reality in just three days of Government formation, the young CM will still have a lot of road to cover when it comes to solving water woes of the city. Kejriwal seems to have taken cognisance of the ‘other factors’ in DJB’s board meeting on Monday where he directed officials of the water utility to carry out sustained drives against unauthorised water connections.
“Action will be taken against those who have unauthorised water connections. The CM also asked us to begin a widespread drive of installation of water meters,” said Sandeep Tanwar, member of DJB, while coming out of the DJB board meeting which was held at Kejriwal’s residence.
Equitable water distribution will be a major challenge, at the same time Kejriwal will also have to focus on those 25 per cent of households which do not get piped water. Moreover, there are several areas like Sangam Vihar, Khanpur and lado Sarai village where even the free water tankers provided by DJB cannot reach, forget pipelines. Rampant mismanagement of water has been a serious issue over the years.
Even now, nearly 50 per cent of potable water in Delhi is lost on account of leakages, theft and unequal distribution. A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India states that in areas without pipelines, the per capita supply of water is a meagre 3.28 litres per day against the prescribed 172 litres. Accepting the fact, a DJB official said, “About 80 per cent of households in Delhi get piped water supply. But it is also a fact that 50 per cent of the authorized water connections are not metered only.”