Hitting out at the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for “sanctioning mass building and construction across the city without factoring in the water availability” DJB chief Ramesh Negi said: “In wake of the city’s water woes and a total hydrological imbalance, there has to be an end to the vertical growth. The DDA should ban further growth. Unless this is done, the city can never have an equitable water supply.” There is “simply not enough water in Delhi”, to support any more growth, he told Newsline.

“In future, all building plans would have to be approved by DJB, and only one connection would be provided on a single plot for a building over four floors, as against the present case of providing different connections for each floor,” Negi said

While the water availability in Delhi is just about sufficient now, Negi thinks the city would be able to tide over a future crisis only by changing the habits of people.

Faced with a severe shortage, the utility was thinking of proposing a cost sharing model with the DDA. “If the DDA behaves like an ordinary builder and goes on building houses, the DJB might consider proposing to the government a cost sharing model with the DDA taking part in various water provision projects,” the DJB official said. The dispute between the DJB and the DDA had come to the fore when the latter built the Dwarka sub-city and none of the two agencies were ready to take responsibility for providing water.

 Demand crosses 1,000 MGD
Delhi's present demand for potable water has crossed 1,000 million gallons per day, while the DJB is equipped to supply a maximum of 870 MGD through all its sources. An additional 80 MGD water that Delhi was hoping to get from the Munak Canal project also stands disputed, with Haryana continuing to deny Delhi’s share. Incidentally, the Delhi government has borne the entire cost of Rs 550-crore project which proposes to concretise the canal between Delhi and Haryana and save 80 MGD otherwise lost to evaporation and seepage