DJB pilot project to study North East Delhi areas to reduce leaks
DJB officials said that the water utility is being guided by the central government's Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO) to reduce the leakages and water losses.
'Three review and consultation meetings have been held between DJB and CPHEEO. The organisation is collecting data for handling the water supply and demand for the next 15 years. We have agreed in principle to divide Delhi into various district metered areas so that hydraulic modelling and water distribution can be strengthened in these basic DMA units,' the official added. DJB is also reviewing the studies carried out in 2003, 2011 and 2021 for improving its water supply distribution.
DJB said the city has a 15,600 km water supply network through which it supplies water to the national capital after purification in the nine water treatment plants. Of the 15,600km network, DJB estimates that 2,800 km network is more than three decades old and needs to be replaced and upgraded to reduce unaccounted water. Water supply network covers around 93.5% of Delhi but the Non Revenue Water (NRW) currently stands at 50-52%. The water utility has only 2.9 million water connections—which is very low and its billing system also suffers from several defects.
In 2011, the Japan International Cooperation Agency had conducted a detailed study of Delhi's water supply system and proposed creation of District Metered Areas (DMA)s for reduction of NRW and installation of SCADA monitoring systems. Based on this study, pilot projects were started on PPP mode in Malviya Nagar assembly and other areas. The project could not be expanded to other areas. The contract period for the pilot expired last month and DJB in its July meeting has granted a four month extension to the current operator, officials said.
HT had earlier reported that Delhi government is working on a policy to deploy private operators for managing water and sewage services—each overseeing DJB infrastructure in their own catchment area—in an attempt to improve service delivery and reduce transmission losses and leakages on the lines of reforms made through power discoms, senior government functionaries said. The water and sewage network in the national capital is likely to be carved into eight separate zones and functioning of the concessionaires will be overseen by DJB.
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The political-economy friction which exists because of the unequal nature of post-reform growth and opportunities which have been generated were left to be negotiated by the political class by way of palliative welfare measures which have proliferated in the post-reform period. This convenient, even if far from ideal arrangement, will cease to exist now as the West turns more protectionist on account of a working-class backlash because of what globalisation and its largest beneficiary China has done to it. There is good reason to believe that we are now past peak globalisation and the tailwinds it generated for the Indian middle class, which allowed it to decouple its material fortunes with the larger economic transformation problem of the Indian economy. This challenge will exist whether or not India pivots from a strategic alliance with the US towards a more multipolar attitude in its external outlook. 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