How did you manage the water crisisIJ
First of all, it was three-prong approach. Making people aware, assessing the resources and then utilising the current data. Once you apprise people in advance that there is going to be a crisis that they are prepared in advance which is the most important factor and motivating your team to tackle the crisis.
What Challenges did you face while resolving the CrisisIJ
See, it is the very basic thing that when the crisis occurred, out of 900 MGD, we were getting 240 MGD from Bhagirathi and 80MGD from Sonia Vihar, so that total 320 MGD we were getting in all in which 580 MGD was still lacking. Which means 75 per cent is lacking. When 580 MGD is a deficit it is a major challenges to fulfil water needs for all and DJB’s 757 water tankers even if it was making four trips a day, still it was able to supply only 2.5 MGD of water. So we assessed our resources at a time when such a huge gap there. When the water supply stops, we realised what best can be done. We were informing people, keeping a track on the development and meetings in the evening with the senior officers to plan for the next day. That how best we can give to people and doing monitoring at very close level.
What is the future planningIJ
While no contingency plan can work for city like Delhi, we are still spotting the areas for extracting groundwater, by doing rainwater harvesting and reviving existing water bodies in the Capital city.