April 09, 2013

Sustainable & efficient Domestic Urban Water Supply (Session-II)

Panel discussion on “Efficiency Lebeling of water appliances,

fixtures and process”. R.K. GARG Technical Advisor

Former Member(WaterSupply) Delhi Jal Board M-9871812122

E-mail:rkgarg 49@gmail.com.

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To appreciate the subject in the Indian Context, it is necessary to look at the provision of water in the

Constitution…!India is union of States. The constitutional

provisions in respect of allocation of responsibilities between the States and Centre fall into three categories: The Union List (List-I), the State List (List-II) and the Concurrent List (List-III). Article 246 of the Constitution deals with subject matter of laws to be made by the Parliament and by Legislature of the States. As most of the rivers in the country are inter-State, the regulation and development of waters of these rivers, is a source of inter-State differences and disputes. In the Constitution, water is a matter included in Entry 17 of List-II i.e. State List. This entry is subject to the provision of Entry 56 of List-I i.e. Union List.

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ARTICLE -262ARTICLE -262Parliament may by law provide for the

adjudication of any dispute or complaint with respect to the use, distribution or control of the waters of, or in, any inter-State river or river valley.

Not with standing anything in this Constitution, Parliament may, by law provide that neither the Supreme Court nor any other court shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of any such dispute or complaint as is referred to in Clause (1).

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ENTRY 56 OF LIST 1 OF 7ENTRY 56 OF LIST 1 OF 7thth SCHEDULE SCHEDULEEntry 56 of List I of Seventh Schedule

provides that "Regulation and development of inter-State rivers and river valleys to the extent to which such regulation and development under the control of the Union is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest".

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Entry 17 under List of Seventh Schedule

"Water, that is to say, water supplies, irrigation and canals, drainage and embankments, water storage and water power subject to the provisions of Entry 56 of List I".

As such, the Central Government is conferred with powers to regulate and develop inter-State rivers under Entry 56 of List I of Seventh Schedule to the extent declared by the Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest.

It also has the power to make laws for the adjudication of any dispute relating to waters of Inter-State River or river valley under Article 262 of the Constitution.

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Impact of such Provisions Parliament enacted An Inter State water disputes Act

1956 providing that in the matters of water disputes, no Court would have jurisdiction and the act created a mechanism to resolve the water disputes amongst the states by referring the dispute to a Tribunal to be constituted by GOI on reference of the dispute by the State.

Unfortunately however the mechanism has proved greatly inadequate as in the Country we did not succeed in resolving any significant water dispute till today.

Ministry of Water Resources is now contemplating amendment of the 1956 Act.

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It has been the suggestion, particularly of Delhi that instead, Act of 1956 be withdrawn and all water disputes are adjudicated by Supreme Court under Article 131.

In fact it has been the suggestion of Sh. Fali. S. Nariman, the noted Senior Advocate of the Country who remained involved for about 50 years in such disputes relating to Narmda, Caveri and Ravi-Beas. He has recorded the suggestion in his autobiography named “Before the Memory fades…….”

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The author says “that besides, the tribunals taking very long in deciding the matters, none of the political parties in any of the complainant or contesting states (in interstate water disputes) are ever willing to concede a single point to the other state… Water allocation by interstate water disputes tribunals is simply not acceptable to political parties or governments of contesting states. The only inevitable acceptability would be to a decision of the country’s highest court. The decisions of the Supreme Court of India are final not because they are infallible; the decisions of the Supreme Court are infallible only because they are constitutionally final.”

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This issue, I have discussed as in my understanding it is necessary to have an efficient mechanism of resolving the water disputes amongst the states so as to ensure optimum utilization of water resources and make supply to the Irrigation sector and as also to the domestic sector both rural and urban, sustainable.

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SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CONTEXT OF DELHI POPULATION AS ON DATE : ABOUT180 LACSLIKELY POPULATION IN 2021 : 230 LACSFLOATING POPULATION : 14 TO 15 LACS EVERY YEAR

WATER DEMAND : 1050 MGDWATER PRODUCED : 820 MGDWATER DEFICIT : 230 MGDWATER DEMAND IN 2021 : 1380 MGD

PRESENT COVERAGE THROUGH PIPE NET WORK : 81%

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ChallangesThe availability is largely dependent on surface

water. The present availability comprises 85% from surface water.

The surface water availability is from Interstate Rivers namely Yamuna, Ganga and Beas. Any increase in availability becomes an Interstate issue and it takes long to seek resolution of the issues.

In case of surface water there is a requirement of long conveyance system involving interference of the neighboring states and heavy transmission losses in leakages, seepages and evaporation.

The ground water is depleting fast and no increase in extraction can be expected.

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Unplanned growth of the capital city. About 5 million people residing in such habitations.

Water infrastructure can not be precisely planned in view of a such unplanned growth.

As a result:i) Non-uniform water supply in various areas.ii) Extension of pipe net work not always based on sound technical principles.iii) Quality of water supply poor in some of such areas.iv) Huge non-revenue water, presently estimated as 62%.v) Poor metering (about 60%) and inadequate coverage.

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What is required?

The optimum planning of any water utility has to be part of overall urban planning. An engineering solution may not be adequate to meet the challenges of deficient urban planning.

Availability of optimum surface water. It is entirely possible and achievable if we manage our river systems efficiently by resolving the Interstate disputes.

At present Delhi is utilizing only about 40% of its Yamuna allocation because there are no upstream storages. Issue of constructing these storages remains unresolved for last more than 15 years.

With in urban unit, the water resources are to be managed efficiently reducing non-revenue water and making the utility financially sustainable.

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In case of Delhi, the present system of water management

Command of a Water Treatment Plant is broadly fixed.

Water from WTP is carried through dedicated Trunk Mains.

Water is first taken to Under Ground Reservoir (UGR) & is then pumped into command area for a limited time of the day.

The management of distribution is looked by a divisional engineer in his area.

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In AdquaciesAt present practically there is no water audit.Metering is only 60%.Inefficient leak detection, one of the prime

reason is non-availability of dedicated corridors for the water mains.

Revenue management and water distribution management with different units.

Old water infrastructure.Potable water being wasted for non-potable

purposes. Basis for working out water tariff not precise.

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Action Plan To address these issues, DJB got a water master

plan prepared by JICA.The master plan envisages augmentation of water

supply and construction of new water treatment plants.

The plan focuses on covering of new areas of settlements, upgrading the existing water infrastructure and reduce the Non Revenue water from the present 62% to 15%.

The plan envisages remodeling and upgrading of the old existing WTPs, including the water infrastructure in their respective commands.

Distributing the area under net work in DMA’s so as to enable precise water auditing.

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Immediately DJB is taking up pilot projects for outsourcing the management of facilities and distribution of water to the consumers including maintenance.

The Pilot Projects are: (i) Nangloi WTP and its command area. (ii) Malviya Nagar UGR and its command area. (iii) Mehrauli Project area and Vasant Vihar Project

area.The objective of these projects is to introduce 24 x 7 water supply within a defined time line and achieve

improvement in service and operational efficiency by reducing both technical and commercial losses to pre-defined targets. The duration of contracts is 12 to 15 years. The population covered is about 21.5 lac and the projects would involve handling of about 58 MGD.

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Depending upon the success of the pilot projects DJB proposes to cover more areas under similar contracts.

With our kind of urban planning or non-planning I should say, non-revenue water is bound to stay high. I see a solution in the integrated planning of the command through DMAs and preferably outsourcing the management of distribution of the water and binding the agency to achieve desired targets.

 

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As on today most of sewage treatment plants of Delhi Jal Board are treating the effluent to secondary standards and using about 140 mgd of such waters for non-potable purposes such as Irrigation, Horticulture and Power Generation. DJB is now taking up projects with tertiary level treatment so as to increase the reuse of treated waste and extend it to other non-potable purposes such as construction, washing of buses etc. and supply to the hospitality district coming up near the vicinity of Air Port. The uses of such water against power generation are also being augmented. In fact it is an important area where there is requirement of consideration at the National level so as to issue detailed norms and guidelines to the various water utilities.

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Sustainability of supply also requires focus on water conservation in its use and sustaining the underground resource through active water harvesting schemes.

Till it happens, it is my suggestion that the distribution area under each division is distributed in DMAs to enable proper water audit. The revenue management staff should be brought under Engineer-in-Charge of the division who should be responsible to account utilization of volume of water, expenditures involved on maintenance of the distribution system and the revenue collection.

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The cost of the water should be clearly worked out as under:i) The procurement of the raw water.

ii)Treatment cost at Water Treatment Plant.

iii) Cost of conveyance up to the UGR.

iv) Distribution cost from UGR onward up to

consumer end.

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The cost of procurement of raw water will differ as per the attendant circumstances. However, in case of cost of treatment at the plant, of conveyance through the water mains up to UGR and distribution cost from UGR onward, some sort of norms and guidelines need to be worked out by some central agency so that water tariffs in different utilities can be based on some what common guidelines and can be to the extent making utilities financially sustainable.

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