New Delhi: She picks up the call and listens in exasperation as the attacks from desperate residents of C-9 Block in Vasant Kunj grow more personal by the minute. Mausumi Bhattacharjee, the RWA president, finally hangs up and places two bottles of water filled to the brim with visibly dirty liquid on the table before the TOI team. “This is what we have been getting for the last one week and what the residents are irate about,” she explains.The monsoon rains caused drains to overflow and the old water supply pipelines also broke, allowing drain water to mix with drinking water, the residents claimed.Vasant Kunj is not an isolated case. There are identical problems in Janakpuri, Indraprastha Extension and Model Town, among many other localities. Residents here have reported degraded water quality for three months and claimed frequent stomach infections among children and the elderly. The water consumers conjecture that the age of the pipelines have left them leaking, thus causing contamination.At Vasant Kunj, while Delhi Jal Board tankers ferried water to C-9 Block, people alleged haphazard distribution in which barely 100 of the 926 listed households were served. A DJB tanker worker did unofficially admit to being unable to supply upper floors because they lacked a pipe long enough for the task.At Janakpuri Block A, RWA member Sandeep Bhatla alleged, “It’s a day-to-day battle. The civic authorities cover just 20 houses here.” Area resident Jogesh Kawatra added wearily, “Yet every time we complain, they talk of the number of tankers deployed for our needs. Most of these tankers don’t even cover our basic daily needs and barely serve 50 of the 300 households here.” Kawatra said they were forced, therefore, to spend up to Rs 600 per day to buy water from private tankers.The RWA officials at Akshardham and Model Town have received umpteen WhatsApp messages with pictures of brown tap water and complaining of skin allergies, even respiratory issues, including chest congestion, due to this. Sanjay Gupta, president, Model Town RWA, disclosed how DJB had only offered assurances about repairs without doing anything when he apprised them about the contaminated water supply since Sept 5.The situation is worse in Laxmi Nagar, home to over a hundred educational centres and paying guest facilities for students. A PG operator is fed up with the students’ complaints but can do little for them. “We can use only the water that flows in the first few minutes since it’s relatively clear. Many students are leaving because of the water and this is affecting our business,” he said.In Mandawali, there are gripes about children suffering from chronic stomach infections due to dubious water quality. People now rely completely on tankers —DJB or private — spending as much as Rs 1,000 daily, which still doesn’t meet their needs. Madan Khatri said the problem worsened after the rainfall. “For three months now, we have received dirty, not only in Mandawali, but also in Chandan Vihar, Madhu Vihar and Joshi Society. Sadly, DJB tankers are rarely on time. Today we received water around 9am when we were leaving home for our businesses and workplaces. They are supposed to come by 7am.” A DJB official maintained, however, that water tankers fitted with GPS devices to ensure timely delivery and monitoring were sent to the designated points.A DJB official told TOI that the water pipes are past their shelf life of 30 years. “Work of re-laying the pipes began in east Delhi on the orders of National Green Tribunal in July, starting with Jagriti Vihar and Anand Vihar and other areas,” the official claimed.Another water official said DJB was focusing on the systematic review of 30-50 year-old pipelines and bids have been invited for the appointment of a project management unit and project monitoring consultants. They will study the sewerage network and prepare project scope. The official also claimed that the aging pipelines were being systematically replaced as part of a plan to modernise the entire water supply system.Delhi govt is also laying sewer lines in unauthorised colonies, with the task already accomplished in 1,240 of 1,799 such colonies, the official claimed. The official added that quality at all water treatment plants is being monitored 24×7 and around a thousand potable water samples are collected daily from different sources for testing. In addition, sewage treatment plants are being monitored to ensure compliance with standards for treated effluents.
