NEW DELHI: Delhi Jal Board has rubbished the Union government’s report that claims tap water in the capital was not fit for drinking. Stung, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party challenged the Centre to pick up samples from Delhi and BJP-run states in a fair manner and send them to neutral agency for testing.
Dinesh Mohaniya, vice-chairman, Delhi Jal Board, remonstrated, “Where were these tests conducted and where are the detailed reports?” He claimed that the city water quality was regularly monitored and the supplied water met all World Health Organization standards. An indignant Mohaniya said, “Random samples are picked every 2-3 hours and checked for quality. The water in the capital is so good that Union jal shakti minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat recently admitted that the water samples tested in Delhi were found to be at par or better than tap water in European cities.”
Union minister for consumer affairs, food and public distribution Ram Vilas Paswan distanced the test findings from city politics and said, “We have been on this job for over one year, taking details of the samples. I have been staying in Delhi since 1977 and seen how water quality has deteriorated. Poor quality water impacts children the most. I will be the happiest person if all water samples are found to be of the best quality.”
AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj backed DJB. “We challenge the Union government and its ministers to pick samples from Delhi and from cities in BJP-ruled states in our presence and send them for audit to neutral agencies,” he said, describing the Union ministry’s pronouncement as “low politics on water pollution after the Centre failed miserably in controlling air pollution in Haryana, Punjab and UP.
Mohaniya questioned the parameters used to judge the samples. “I don’t know which BIS norms are being because samples from cities like Kolkata, Chennai and Jaipur all failing to meet them,” he said. The ministerial report stated Delhi water from Sonia Vihar, Krishi Bhawan, Janpath, Mandoli and Burari failed to meet standards for E. coli, total dissolved solids, acidity, etc. “Sonia Vihar is one of our best water treatment plants with clean water coming from the Ganga,” Mohaniya asserted. “People and localities in Delhi demand Sonia Vihar water.”
Experts who check DJB’s water quality, disclosed that thousands of samples of the utility’s supply water are picked up by third parties like NEERI and even the BJP-run municipal corporations for testing. The samples are almost always found fit for drinking. “In some areas, people blend bore-well water with DJB water and some localities have old corroded pipes that affect water quality,” one of them said.
by TNN | Nov 17, 2019, 04.08 AM IST
