Had the Bishts settled down in Central Delhi or even Mayur Vihar, they would have had a spare car in the garage by now. But their decision to make Dwarka their home eight years ago has cost them roughly Rs 2 lakh towards packaged drinking water
“We buy our drinking water, which is very costly. DDA had promised us four hours of water supply a day, but we don’t get even an hour’s supply regularly,” said Virender Singh Bisht, resident of DDA flats in Sector 14
At Rs 70 for 20 litres, packaged water works out as expensive as the monthly electricity bill —Rs 1500-2000 —for a typical family of four adults. However, in Dwarka, unless a housing society has its own reverse osmosis (RO) filtration plant, residents are constrained to buy potable water at steep rates
CAN BRUSH OR FLUSH Not just drinking water, Dwarka is short of water for all purposes. Against its requirement of 10 million gallons (MGD) a day (3.8 crore litres or 19 lakh bathroom buckets), it gets only about 3.5 MGD from Delhi Jal Board
The average daily water availability in the sub-city is around 50 litres per person — just enough to flush the toilet five times. You can either bathe, wash clothes or flush the loo, but not all in the same day
Given the acute shortage of water, residents have to depend on private water tankers that charge Rs 600-1200 for a tanker-load
ADAPTING TO SURVIVE Guests upset homemaker Rajinder Kaur’s water budget
“You start keeping count of every glass of water anyone in the house consumes, and plan your life accordingly,” said Kaur
Her 16-year-old daughter is betrothed to the booster pump. She cannot step out in the evenings as “someone has to be at home to switch on the pump for storing whatever little water’s supplied.”
Sector 14 resident SS Chauhan works nights. But he knows no rest during the day either. The airline official often comes home to find the taps dry. He then spends half the day arranging for water through private tankers. “Since my house is on the top floor, even the booster pump is useless when the water pressure is weak. So, my wife and two children often go without water through the night.”
BUCK DOESN’T STOP Water supply to Dwarka is managed by two agencies — Delhi Jal Board (DJB) supplies water to Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which distributes it to the residential blocks
Regarding the 65 per cent shortfall in availability of water, DJB says Dwarka came into existence without planning (DDA’s responsibility) for the supply of water. However, DDA washes its hands of the crisis by claiming that supplying water is not its responsibility
Tuning in to the residents of Dwarka There is definitely a lot of problem in Dwarka. We have to buy water every single day. The taps are completely dry. Water tankers are our saviours
—Yuki, 25, lecturer in DU The Delhi Government should set up area-wise water plants so that enough water is stored in them to counter any water shortage
—Shobraj Yadav, 23, BPO professional We are getting brackish water daily and it's very difficult for us in this weather because this water also damages our water coolers
—Karishma, 30, housewife We get water only in the morning, around 6.30 am, and that for just about an hour
—Manjri, 27, planning executive The water supply situation in Dwarka is quite grim and it gets worse during summers. Water is supplied through tankers twice a day in our society, so one can imagine the frenzy as soon as we see water in our taps. I had to buy some extra buckets in order to stock up water
—Syed Faiz Hussain, 26, sales executive The water supply is rationed - we don't get it from 12 noon to 6 pm. We have to store water in large quantities —Aparajita, 25, manager We pay Rs 1,500 per month for water
Even though it guarantees 24-hour water supply, it is still too high an amount to pay
—Gauravi, 29, PR manager
Had the Bishts settled down in Central Delhi or even Mayur Vihar, they would have had a spare car in the garage by now. But their decision to make Dwarka their home eight years ago has cost them roughly Rs 2 lakh towards packaged drinking water
“We buy our drinking water, which is very costly. DDA had promised us four hours of water supply a day, but we don’t get even an hour’s supply regularly,” said Virender Singh Bisht, resident of DDA flats in Sector 14
At Rs 70 for 20 litres, packaged water works out as expensive as the monthly electricity bill —Rs 1500-2000 —for a typical family of four adults. However, in Dwarka, unless a housing society has its own reverse osmosis (RO) filtration plant, residents are constrained to buy potable water at steep rates
CAN BRUSH OR FLUSH Not just drinking water, Dwarka is short of water for all purposes. Against its requirement of 10 million gallons (MGD) a day (3.8 crore litres or 19 lakh bathroom buckets), it gets only about 3.5 MGD from Delhi Jal Board
The average daily water availability in the sub-city is around 50 litres per person — just enough to flush the toilet five times. You can either bathe, wash clothes or flush the loo, but not all in the same day
Given the acute shortage of water, residents have to depend on private water tankers that charge Rs 600-1200 for a tanker-load
ADAPTING TO SURVIVE Guests upset homemaker Rajinder Kaur’s water budget
“You start keeping count of every glass of water anyone in the house consumes, and plan your life accordingly,” said Kaur
Her 16-year-old daughter is betrothed to the booster pump. She cannot step out in the evenings as “someone has to be at home to switch on the pump for storing whatever little water’s supplied.”
Sector 14 resident SS Chauhan works nights. But he knows no rest during the day either. The airline official often comes home to find the taps dry. He then spends half the day arranging for water through private tankers. “Since my house is on the top floor, even the booster pump is useless when the water pressure is weak. So, my wife and two children often go without water through the night.”
BUCK DOESN’T STOP Water supply to Dwarka is managed by two agencies — Delhi Jal Board (DJB) supplies water to Delhi Development Authority (DDA), which distributes it to the residential blocks
Regarding the 65 per cent shortfall in availability of water, DJB says Dwarka came into existence without planning (DDA’s responsibility) for the supply of water. However, DDA washes its hands of the crisis by claiming that supplying water is not its responsibility
Tuning in to the residents of Dwarka There is definitely a lot of problem in Dwarka. We have to buy water every single day. The taps are completely dry. Water tankers are our saviours
—Yuki, 25, lecturer in DU The Delhi Government should set up area-wise water plants so that enough water is stored in them to counter any water shortage
—Shobraj Yadav, 23, BPO professional We are getting brackish water daily and it's very difficult for us in this weather because this water also damages our water coolers
—Karishma, 30, housewife We get water only in the morning, around 6.30 am, and that for just about an hour
—Manjri, 27, planning executive The water supply situation in Dwarka is quite grim and it gets worse during summers. Water is supplied through tankers twice a day in our society, so one can imagine the frenzy as soon as we see water in our taps. I had to buy some extra buckets in order to stock up water
—Syed Faiz Hussain, 26, sales executive The water supply is rationed - we don't get it from 12 noon to 6 pm. We have to store water in large quantities —Aparajita, 25, manager We pay Rs 1,500 per month for water
Even though it guarantees 24-hour water supply, it is still too high an amount to pay
—Gauravi, 29, PR manager