The Hindu 19.08.2010
7,000 km of Capital's water pipelines replaced in 10 years
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday said that under phase-wise replacement of water mains across the Capital about 7,000 km of pipelines out of the planned 13,000 km have been replaced so far.
Replying to a query in the Delhi Assembly during Question Hour, the Chief Minister said that to streamline water distribution in the city, about 13,000 km of pipelines were proposed to be replaced. “In the last 10 years 7,000 km of pipes have been replaced,” she added.
“Now every year about 10 km of sewerage line and about 10 km of water lines would be replaced in every constituency,'' she said.
Thus it was revealed that about 1,400 km of pipes would now be replaced every year so that the entire work is finished in less than five years.
In a written reply to a question, the Chief Minister informed that at present 840 million gallons of water is treated and supplied every day.
Most of this water is obtained either underground or via rivers and then treated at the Chandrawal, Wazirabad, Haiderpur, Nangloi, Bhagirathi and Sonia Vihar water treatment plants.
With the present level of population, about 60 gallons of water per day is needed per person and so Delhi needs a supply of 1,050 MGD, she said.
As for the 102-km Munak Canal from Haiderpur, she said while work on the independent canal has been completed it now awaits supply of 80 MGD of water from Haryana to augment the supply of raw water to Delhi.
It was also stated that the Delhi Government has approached the Centre for constructing a dam on the Yamuna. A survey is also being done by the Central Ground Water Board and the National Hydrology Institute, Roorkee, for improving the quality of water of the Yamuna between Wazirabad and Okhla and making it potable.
Water re-cycling
In supplementary information it was stated that the Union Ministry of Urban Development has issued a notification under which “it has been provided that all new building plots of 100 square metres and above shall have provisions for rain water harvesting and water re-cycling has been made compulsory in all buildings having minimum discharge of 10,000 litres per day and above.''
It has been stated that “the recycled water is to be used for horticulture and other purposes'' and this has been endorsed by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.
