Delhi govt has failed to deliver clean drinking water: RTI reply to Congress

Water-starved Delhi has been able to add just one water treatment plant in the last six years, while increasing the number of water tankers in the national capital, as against the promise of ending “tanker raj” in the city, an RTI reply received from the Delhi Jal Board has revealed.
The RTI filed by Congress worker Tejpal Singh last year revealed that between 2015 and 2021, the Delhi government sanctioned only one Waste Water Treatment Plant of 124 MGD at Okhla. The RTI further said that the work order for the construction of the said Waste Water Treatment Plant was done during 2019 for a cost of Rs 11,61,17,97,942.
Every year during the summer months between April to July, Delhi reels under a massive water crisis with scant water being supplied to the housing colonies across Delhi. Several reports also suggest that the water supplied by the Delhi government many times during these months are not even fit for drinking as “contaminated” and “dirty” water is supplied to these housing colonies in Delhi.
Many also complain about inadequate water being supplied by the Delhi Jal Board and several colonies still have to depend on water tankers for regular supply of water. According to data, the city on an average requires 3,324 million litres of water every day, but the Delhi government is only able to supply 2,034 million litres of water every day.
This inadequacy between the demand and supply also leads to water being supplied through tankers in Delhi to meet the increasing demand of water in many authorised and unauthorised colonies in the city.
The Congress has also hit out at the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) led government in Delhi, claiming that instead of reducing the dependence on water tankers and providing water through direct taps to every household in Delhi as was promised by Kejriwal, it has increased the number of tankers in Delhi.
Another RTI reply provided by the Delhi Jal Board also makes it certain that the number of tankers supplying water to Delhi has increased considerably in the last few years. According to the RTI, from 567 water tankers supplying water in Delhi as on 1 January 2015, the number of water tankers in Delhi have increased to 891. Dr Naresh Kumar, senior spokesperson of the Congress, told The Sunday Guardian, “While the Kejriwal government speaks of giving 700 litres of free water to every household in Delhi, many in the city are reeling under severe water crisis. As per the RTI, you can see that the government has been able to sanction just one water treatment plant for the people of Delhi, while the population of Delhi has increased considerably over the last few years. From 2 crore population in 2015, it is estimated that the city’s population now is 3.5 crore and the water being supplied by the Delhi government is just not enough.”
Dr Kumar further added that, since the Kejriwal government is failing to supply clean drinking water to the people of Delhi, it has increased the number of tankers. “Kejriwal had promised to the people that his government would do away with the water tanker mafia in Delhi and would stop the dependence of water tankers for the people of Delhi, but what we are seeing is that in the last six years, the government increased the number of tankers in Delhi, which clearly means that the Delhi government had failed in its promise,” Dr Kumar told this newspaper.
Dr Kumar also added that against the promise of the Delhi government to provide piped water to the authorised colonies in Delhi, it has been able to provide piped water to only 251 out of the 1742 unauthorised colonies in
the city.