Major parks, green belt areas wouldn't be allowed to use ground water for horticulture needs: DJB

All major parks and green belt areas would not be allowed to use groundwater anymore for horticulture needs and they would instead have to use water from decentralised waste water treatment system, the Delhi Jal Board today said.

In a meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, it was decided that all major parks and green belt areas would make arrangements for decentralised waste water treatment system near to the feeding point provided by DJB, from where they would lift raw sewerage from the sewer line, treat it and use for their horticulture needs, a statement by DJB said.

"Delhi has limited sources of raw water and to meet the increasing demand of water for drinking, commercial and industrial use and environmentally sustainable manner, the board has been developing plans to implement the recycle and reuse of treated effluent as source of raw water," it said.

To facilitate development of additional sources of water recycling of treated waste water is being adopted.

"The DJB is setting up a 70 million gallons per day (MGD) sewerage treatment plant at Coronation Pillar. The board approved upgradation and rehabilitation of existing 40 MGD Rithala Phase-II STP to treat sewage," it added.

"The discharged raw water in river Yamuna will be lifted from Wazirabad Pond for treatment to potable water standards by WTPs at Wazirabad," it said.

Acknowledging that one of the major sources of ground water depletion is its extraction and use for horticulture purpose, the DJB said there are large parks which use ground water and borewells for their horticulture need.

All major parks and green belt areas would not be allowed to use ground water anymore and instead use water from decentralised waste water treatment system, it said.

The DJB also approved a 90 per cent rebate on the sewer charges for all who use their own decentralized sewer treatment plants for water recycling.