Delhi government on Friday approved a number of key projects to improve the water and wastewater services provided by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in the city.
One of the major decisions, at a DJB meeting chaired by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, was that all parks, complexes, and institutions will have Decentralized Sewer Treatment Plants (DSTPs) which would help increase the depleting groundwater levels.
"One of the major sources of groundwater depletion is its extraction and use for horticulture purpose. All major parks and greenbelt areas whether with Delhi government, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) or Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) would not be allowed to use groundwater anymore," said a statement from Kejriwal's office.
Instead, it said, they would make arrangement for Decentralized Waste Water Treatment System (DWWTS) 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.
The Delhi Jal Board also approved a 90 per cent rebate on the sewer charges for all who use their own DSTPs for water recycling.
It also approved the appointment of a consultant to study and submit a report on the use of untreated water generated from the Sewer Treatment Plants (STPs) which will increase the total amount of treated water to 516 Millions of gallons per day (MGD) from a mere 89 MGD by the end of 2018.
In the meeting, it was also decided to rejuvenate 12 water bodies with WAPCOS (earlier known as Water and Power Consultancy Services Limited) as a consultant.
"The move aims to recharge groundwater levels, improve the ecology and create a green public space. Groundwater can later be extracted to augment supply in the local area," said Delhi government officials.
Citing several instances where sewage cleaners met with "unfortunate accidents" in the recent past, the Delhi Jal Board accorded approval for deployment of 200 specially fabricated tailor-made sewer cleaning machines for cleaning of sewer lines in narrow streets of Delhi.
To this, Kejriwal's office said: "The aim is to eliminate the practice of the manual cleaning of the sewer line so that the silt/sludge in the main hole is not handled physically by the labour. The total expenditure for deployment of 200 machines will be Rs 380 crore."
The Delhi Jal Board also devised a "Sewage Master Plan 2031" with an aim to provide a sewerage system in all the areas, colonies and urban villages in the city.
"The Master Plan involves providing and laying a sewerage system, construction of decentralized STPs and development of water bodies with 10 years operation and maintenance cost in Chhattarpur Assembly Constituency in Delhi," the Chief Minister's office said.
"Other areas which would be covered under the Master Plan are Pochanpur Group of Colonies in Matiyala constituency, Dabri village and Raghu Nagar group of colonies in Dwarka constituency, Bakkarwala RSC (Loknayak Puram), and main Tigri Road up to Dakshin Puri SPS," it added.
To bring about an overall improvement in the water management system of Delhi Jal Board, the Board accorded approval of the "creation of new raw water sources" through high quality treated effluent from 10 MGD Waste Water Treatment Plant in Narela, after due upgrades as per the standards, so that the treated effluent discharged into the river Yamuna is of acceptable raw water standards.
"The DJB is also setting up a 70 MGD sewer treatment plant at Coronation Pillar, near Mukundpur area which will help in cleaning the Yamuna.
--IANS
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