NEW DELHI: Amid the Delhi Jal Board’s (DJB) planned interconnection work that has affected water supply in several areas of the national capital, residents from many areas, including Dwarka and Najafgarh, are grappling with water crisis.
Adding to their woes, the water tanker helpline numbers listed by the DJB have been found to be non-functional.
The interconnection work, which began on Wednesday (February 25), has led to a 48-hour water cut in multiple areas, with the DJB asking residents to use water judiciously and rely on tankers for emergency needs. However, a check of the helpline numbers as well as conversations with residents of one of the listed areas revealed a different story.
Calls made by this correspondent found that the water tanker helpline numbers listed by the DJB are not working, with most of them being unserviceable. Apart from one number listed as ‘Water Emergency Najafgarh,’ every other number was reported to be either switched off, unreachable or out of service. Residents say the lack of access to tanker services amid water supply disruptions has emerged as a cause for concern among them.
The residents of many affected colonies say that they had stored water in advance after the disruption notice was issued. But some families miscalculated their requirements, while others refused to store water for more than 24 hours. In such cases, tankers supply is often the only fallback.
“We did not store water that could be used beyond 24 hours and did not have the storage capacity to do so either,” rues Vandana, a resident of Dwarka’s Sector 13.
She added, “Our resident welfare association had said Wednesday that the DJB does not have sufficient water tankers for supply and thereby tanker availability remains a challenge.” She added, “They also shared the number of a private tanker service with us. But they said that they do not have adequate water supply.”
Another resident from Dwarka shared, “We just recently moved in to this area and many of our friends had earlier warned us of the water shortage scenario here.”
She said, “One of our neighbours recently told us that no one relies on the water tanker services as the quality of that water is extremely poor.”
Additionally, on Wednesday, the Delhi Jal Board announced that due to the annual flushing programme of underground reservoirs and booster pumping stations, the water supply will be affected in certain areas on February 27 and 28. The affected areas include Rajokari village, Maidangarhi, Ghitorini village, among others.