File photo of Delhi High Court
The Delhi High Court has directed the city's jal board to give a "definitive" plan on how it intends to utilise the huge reserve of 63000 cubic metres of groundwater discovered in a residential colony in South Delhi.
A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Sanjeev Sachdeva directed Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to file a "definitive report" after the civic body's senior officials, present in the court, could not give a clear reply on how the water would be utilised.
The DJB officials -- an executive engineer and a junior engineer, told the court that the water was not fit for human consumption in its current state as it had a high concentration of e.coli bacteria.
They said that the water cannot also be used for watering parks, or for horticulture.
The officials said that they will instead mix it with filtered water to bring its parameters within limits prescribed for drinking and then will supply it to households.
Alternatively, the water can be sent to a water treatment plant, for which a storage would have to be built, DJB said.
Not satisfied by the reply, the court asked the DJB officials to not tell "stories" and directed them to give "a clear plan of action".
"It is good that you got some water, right? Are you not concerned with it? Do you want it to evaporate into the air and rain somewhere else?" the court asked and directed DJB to "think about what to do and implement it immediately".
The court was also not impressed with the DJB suggestion of mixing filtered water with the discovered ground water, saying its like saying add water to poison so that it gets diluted.
The order and observations of the court came on a PIL filed by M L Ahuja, a resident of Siddharth Extension in South Delhi where the huge reserve of water has been found.
In his plea, Mr Ahuja has contended that the issue of high water table has persisted in the colony since 2011 and has caused extensive seepage to the foundation of the buildings there and could affect the structural integrity of the constructions coming up.
According to Mr Ahuja and DJB, water has been found at a depth of 1.5 metres from the surface and this had prompted the court to direct the civic body and Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA) to ascertain the reason for it.
Thereafter, CGWA had told the court that the high water table was on account of groundwater being recharged.
Then on July 8, CGWA submitted a report estimating that a total of 63,000 cubic metres of ground water was available and through de-watering for