Free water won't reach the needy

NEW DELHI: Surinder Kaushik, a bank employee, pays Rs 450 for 1,000 litres of water every day in winter. A resident of Sangam Vihar, Kaushik didn't cheer when the new chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, announced 20,000 litres of free water to every household and a crackdown on the tanker mafia. In his unauthorized colony, where balconies touch and sunlight doesn't reach the ground, there is no Delhi Jal Board supply and private tankers are a necessity. TOI visited the colony which found a mention in Kejriwal's trust vote speech on Thursday.

There are tankers everywhere, parked on the sides or blocking the narrow lanes with their blue or green pipes. Dinesh Mohania, the local MLA who represents Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party, is in a dilemma as without metered connections the colony residents won't benefit from the free water scheme. "The government has been providing water tankers to residents as there is no pipeline. There are tube wells and people can use ground water. But it's true the residents of Sangam Vihar, Deoli and Ambedkar Nagar will not benefit from the free water scheme at all," Mohania said.

DJB sends tankers free of cost to areas where water supply is disrupted. But on most occasions, the colony residents say, their demand for water is turned down citing a shortage. Somehow, the private tankers are able to provide water.

Saroj Bala, a housewife in Sangam Vihar's B-block, says catfights over water are routine. Every day, she and her two daughters line up with their blue plastic drums and empty oil cans to fill up. In summer, the fighting is more vicious and bruises common. "The bijli-paani andolan was launched for us but now we are ruled out of it. We pay more for water than my husband's employer in Kalkaji. Water should be free for us as the rich can still afford it," she said.

The area councillor and chairman of South Delhi Municipal Corporation's standing committee, Satyendra Choudhary, said the free water scheme will affect development work in these unauthorized colonies and slums. "Providing free water to households with meters will mean more taxes. Even the poor pay taxes as VAT and other inevitable taxes. Development will be hit as new projects, such as laying water pipelines, mean expenditure."

However, Kejriwal before the elections promised that every household in the capital will get water, irrespective of their location in slums and unauthorized colonies. But on Monday he announced, 670 litres per day to households with working meters. This, however, may mean the scheme will be availed by people who are better off while the "aam aadmi" would continue to face water scarcity and be at the mercy of private tankers.