Delhi could also be pumping out over 900 million gallons of water from its water therapy vegetation, however lower than half of this may be accounted for.
In line with the Economic Survey of Delhi 2023-24, 58% of the water produced by the Delhi Jal Board is “non-revenue”.
However what does non-revenue water imply?
After water is pumped by water therapy vegetation, it goes to reservoirs and is finally transmitted to totally different components of the town. Not all of it reached the vacation spot, although, and a few was misplaced in transmission. The distinction between the water that leaves the water therapy vegetation and the water that’s billed — home or industrial — or could be accounted for, is taken into account non-revenue.
It’s both stolen or leaked. Throughout the globe, the typical of non-revenue water is round 25% to 30%. In Delhi, official data say the share is way larger.
In 2021, of the 925 MGD of water produced on a mean from April to December, solely round 419 MGD was delivered to customers and billed.
In 2020-21, the share of non-revenue water stood at 51%, up from 42% in 2019-20. The explanation cited for prime non-revenue water is “non-billing of customers in quarter 4 of 2020-21 and quarter one in every of 2021-22 as a consequence of Covid-19 and non availability of billing company.”
The place does this water go?
Whereas a big quantity is stolen by these working water tankers, a big quantity can also be misplaced as a result of Delhi’s pipeline community is previous.
“As a result of these traces will not be laid in a devoted hall, leakages come ahead solely when there’s a huge street cave-in, or when water makes it to the floor and folks begin noticing. A number of pipelines in Delhi are many many years previous and are rotting,” mentioned a senior Delhi authorities official on situation of anonymity.
However leakages in arterial pipelines, that are largely above the bottom, are not often unintentional, officers say.
“There are components of unequal and unfair circumstances and criminality right here. There are occasions when locals might not be getting enough water for a number of days and out of compulsion they could loosen a couple of screws to launch some water. However extra possible is the non-public water tanker house owners puncturing the traces to steal water,” the official added.
Whereas losses in transmission are frequent throughout utilities, non-revenue water is among the many greatest by way of dimension, globally.
However why can the DJB not reduce these losses?
Over the previous few years, a undertaking to put in circulate meters at totally different levels of distribution had been underway. Move meters can point out the distinction in circulate between two factors. If the circulate is measured at level A and falls by the point water reaches level B, it signifies a leak or pilferage between the 2 factors.
The undertaking is on the stage of implementation. A complete of two,715 circulate meters have been to be put in within the first section, of which 2,691 have been in place.
The undertaking value for all packages was Rs 224 crore. One other 1,537 meters are to be positioned in section 2, which is underway.