Water Minister and Chairperson of Delhi Jal Board (DJB) Satyendar Jain on Thursday instructed the officials to maximize utilisation of existing tube-wells to recharge groundwater so that rainwater can be harvested during the monsoon period.
The minister convened a meeting of senior officers of the DJB along with its members, wherein he brought forth the need to augment the city's water supply.
“The DJB will ensure extraction of around 55 MGD water from the different WTP complexes. In the meeting it was discussed that most of the ‘Water Treatment Plants’ of DJB are located in floodplain zones where ground water gets recharged every year in the monsoon during flood, hence this extraction water will be recharged every year without compromising ground water levels. This water will be extracted through tube-wells and mixed with regular supply water in the reservoirs,’ he said.
DJB has been instructed to take innovative steps to meet with increasing water demand in Delhi, he added. He further said that water augmentation is the only solution to meet the increasing demand of water in Delhi.
Jain also highlighted the need to augment water capacity and spoke about how DJB can use the existing tube-wells lying defunct for recharging groundwater along with reducing floods on roads. Due to urbanisation, natural catchments, and absorption capacity of soil have reduced.
He also added, ''This utilisation of defunct tube-wells is an opportunity to recharge groundwater directly in the residential areas. This will also reduce TDS in groundwater after dilution of harvested rainwater. The initiative of rejuvenation of 600 water bodies and lakes, flood water harvesting, rejuvenation of old canals and irrigation minors will also bring overall improvement of groundwater.”
Delhi government's initiatives of floodwater harvesting have also yielded a good result leading to improvement of groundwater up to two meters in Palla area.