DJB announces action plan to deal with water crisis in summers

Delhi Jal Board (DJB) today announced its action plan to deal with water crisis during the summer season, which emphasized on maintaining equal water distribution and adding more population under the ambit of the distribution network.
According to an official, CEO of DJB directed all the officers to complete preventive maintenance activities of water treatment plants by the month end to avoid any major shut downs during peak summer.
In order to provide consistent water supply during the summers, officers were also instructed to complete construction work pertaining to water supply, laying water lines, boring tubewells by mid April.
"Emphasis should be given on efficient water management to maintain equitable water distribution in the city and add more population under the ambit of the water distribution network of DJB which will eventually reduce the dependency on other water sources," a senior officer said.

According to a senior official, out of 1639 unauthorised colonies, water supply has been released in 913. "Piped water supply in the remaining unauthorised colonies will be extended in a phased manner. The work of laying of water lines in 100 unauthorised colonies is under progress and the process of estimation/tendering is underway in the case of 88 others," the official said.
To deal with public grievances due to the shortage of water supply, DJB has planned to maintain 24-hour emergency control rooms at strategic locations.

"These emergency control rooms have been strengthened by deploying adequate staff strength, communication facilities and an efficient mechanism for addressing and monitoring of complaints," the official said.

DJB also said a 24/7 customer care call centre would be made functional to address the consumer's grievances on priority.
The Board has also nominated nodal officers for these control rooms for effective supervision and monitoring of the water emergencies in order to efficiently address the public complaints.
The Enforcement Department of DJB shall also carry-out regular surprise checks, both at the control rooms and at the consumer end, to verify the timely redressal of complaints.
According to senior official, DJB will put the details of tankers and delivery point on their website. "We have identified new points for the tankers so that potable water is supplied even in the remote areas. All the 155 tanker filling hydrants are functional. We also planned to procure 250 new water tankers. There is a proposal to increase the tanker trips to 6400 from 6100 trips per day last summer," an official said.

In order to ensure surveillance of quality of water being supplied in the city DJB has upgraded its 12 water testing laboratories, including 6 zonal labs, to carry-out intensive checks of its water samples.