Delhi Jal Board Vice Chairman Shri Somnath Bharti convened an important meeting with the MLAs of Delhi and top officials of the Jal Board at the DJB Headquarters on Friday. Matiala MLA Shri Gulab Singh and Hari Nagar MLA Smt Raj Kumari Dhillon participated in the meeting. The MLAs informed the Chairman about the water related problems occurring in their respective constituencies. In this meeting, serious discussions were held on many points on the vision of Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal related to drinking water supply in the national capital. Several key decisions were taken by the Vice Chairman of DJB and instructions were issued to the officials in the meeting.
Delhi Jal Board is continuously working towards raising the production and quality levels of water. Due to all the efforts of the Delhi Jal Board, there has been an increase in both the production and quality of water. This has directly impacted the water supply scenario and improvement in water supply is now visible in Delhi. However, a gap still persists when it comes to water supply at the last mile. Hence, DJB Vice Chairman Shri Somnath Bharti has decided in this meeting that DJB will conduct a “water audit”. In the water audit, review of demand and supply, water resource management, rational water distribution, water quality, water wastage, water scarcity, available sources of water and possibility of developing new sources of water etc. will be considered. According to the DJB Vice Chairman, Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal believes that it is important to keep an account of water which is a precious resource in order to improve the supply scenario in Delhi. Water audit will be helpful in policy formulation and their robust implementation.
During the meeting, Vice Chairman Shri Somnath Bharti held that Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal has directed that there should be no wastage of drinking water in Delhi. Wastage of water that is caused by leakages should be prevented immediately through repairs. Shri Somnath Bharti also took another important step to stop water wastage by directing the DJB officers to carry out regular “water patrolling.” Directing the officials to monitor the water pipelines on a weekly basis, he said that it must be ensured that there is no wastage of water in Delhi. The Vice Chairman said that to avoid wastage of water, it is important to monitor water pipelines so that a leakage is detected early and is rectified instantly.
For the laying and repair of new water pipelines and sewerage network, Delhi Jal Board has to do lots of earthworks on roads. Owing to technical difficulties in some places, the repair or restoration work of roads could not be completed on time and people have to face problems. The DJB Vice Chairman said that a new policy is required so that people are not forced to face such problems and the road repair works do not get delayed due to technical glitches. In this meeting, Shri Somnath Bharti instructed the DJB officials to prepare a new policy for road restoration. The draft of the new policy will be presented in the upcoming board meeting of Delhi Jal Board.
Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal is serious about wastage of water and rational distribution of water. The Chief Minister had set a deadline for the installation of flow meters on every primary and secondary underground reservoir (UGR) in Delhi. In this meeting, Shri Somnath Bharti instructed the officials to complete the work of installation of flow meters within the deadline set by the Chief Minister. The non-functional flow meters should also be replaced on an urgent basis. Shri Somnath Bharti held that optimal management of water resources and equitable distribution will end the problem of water shortage in Delhi.
