[Reader-list] Fwd: [waterjustice] Re: New Delhi's Watermafia
Rob van Kranenburg
kranenbu at xs4all.nl
Fri Jan 20 04:33:24 IST 2006
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Mary Ann Manahan" <mbmanahan at focusweb.org>
> Date: January 16, 2006 3:26:41 AM GMT+01:00
> To: <waterjustice at tni.org>
> Subject: [waterjustice] Re: New Delhi's Watermafia
>
> New Delhi's Watermafia
>
> The tale of Delhi's water mafia No capital in the world has
> the kind
> of water availability like that of Delhi, yet its 15 million people
> face
> water scarcity. How come?
>
>
> Sandeep Yadav Delhi
>
>
> Delhi Jal Bard (DJB) officials assure that Delhi has enough water
> for its
> residents. The scarcity then is artificial and the result of the
> theft of
> public utility supplied water. The leaked water finds itself in
> commercially
> bottled drinking water bottles, water tankers and water cans,
> available
> round the clock, but of course at a price. There is no estimate of the
> turnover, but by all reckoning, it is impressive.
> Ashish Kundra, additional chief executive officer, DJB says "Tanker
> supplies are part of supplementing the water scarcity needs. Mostly
> it is
> DJB water tan-kers¡­supplemented by private tankers." But the
> fact is
> that powerful nexus of politicians, officials and water traders is
> actively
> engaged in profiteering through sale and theft of water. An elected
> representative from Rohini owns tankers that sport 'Sonia Gandhi
> zindabad'
> slogans which imply that they are connected to social welfare and not
> business. Ram Dev Baliyan, a resident of Rohini declined from
> revealing the
> name of the owner who runs the water tankers in the area but said
> "Netaji ke
> hain" (They belong to a politician). It is this water mafia who in
> collaboration with the enforcement cell of the DJB is keeping the
> government
> taps dry. The five star hotels in the city are other big guzzlers
> of water.
> Some laws to regulate these activities are imperative.
> After the Delhi government abandoned its plan to privatise the
> Delhi Jal
> Board (DJB), the next step of the Sheila Dixit government has been
> to set up
> an expert committee to examine water sector reforms in Delhi. It
> has invited
> Right to Water Campaign, an NGO, for suggestions. This NGO had
> carried a
> robust campaign against the Delhi government's decision to
> privatise the
> DJB. The idea that competition in the market forces the private
> players to
> provide quality service and the market decides the price of the
> product is
> not possible in case of a public utility monopoly. A private
> company is
> driven by profit motives and would always work towards maximising
> these
> profits. Arvind Kejriwal, president, Parivartan, an anti-corruption
> group
> warns "the privatisation of monopolies can never work. Private sector
> monopoly can become a great demon and play havoc in the lives of
> ordinary
> citizens."
> The Delhi water privatisation fiasco holds lessons for the other 20
> states
> and union territories where the privatisation of water boards is in
> various
> stages of completion. Water supply in three districts of Karnataka has
> already been privatised. The experience the world over has proved
> that water
> tariffs had taken off wherever water utilities have been handed
> over to
> private water companies, be it Manila, Cochabamba (Bolivia), Sofia
> (Bulgaria) or Valencia (Spain) and the experiment has proved
> disastrous.
> Delhi's problem is not technical. What is needed is mere internal
> accountability. According to Kundra, Delhi has 670 million gallons
> per day
> (MGD) of water supply (which would go up to 810 MGD after the Sonia
> Vihar
> project). And if divided by the 150 million people, the population
> of Delhi,
> it comes to 220 litres per capita per day (almost 11 buckets). No
> city has
> this kind of availability of water. Government says that they lose
> 50 per
> cent of water. If so, where is this 335 million gallon of water
> going? If it
> goes underground, the water table should rise, which is not
> happening. If
> not going under ground this amount of water should flood the roads.
> Again
> this is not happening. So where exactly is the water going? Even if we
> accept the thesis of "genuine" loss of water, we are left with a
> stock of
> 110 litres of water per person per day. This is still not an absolute
> shortage. Where is this water?
> The serious lack of accountability is quite evident in case of
> Delhi Jal
> Board functioning. Delhi has been divided into 21 water zones, each
> headed
> by an executive engineer who is provided with the fixed amount of
> water and
> a budget for his zone. Yet, he is not held responsible for the
> water/money
> invested in his zone. There is no functioning bulk water metre in
> the zones.
> Nobody knows the amount of water a particular zone is receiving.
> Same is the
> case of the metre to record the water supply to Delhi. Who can tell
> who is
> getting how much?
> Not sorting out the issues of governance, accountability and the
> plugging
> of water theft by the DJB and the government of Delhi would render
> the whole
> exercise of reforms and committees futile
>
>
> R.Ajayan
> Convener
> Plachimada Solidarity Committee
> Ph:- Res 0471-2730464
> Mob- 09847142513
> Res Add - Neerajam,
> Kudappanakunnu,
> Trivandrum-695043
> Kerala, India
>
>
>
>
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