Delhiites cry as taps run dry

Tens of thousands of people in the capital went without potable water for the third day on Thursday after two water treatment plants were shut down by the authorities.

The crisis has mainly hit the western and northern parts of the city, with harried residents complaining that the administration had failed to provide them water tankers.

Many said they were forced to go for ground water drawn from neighbourhood parks after exhausting all the stored water in their homes.

“We had to go to other areas and stand in long queues for water and then lift buckets upto two floors,” moaned Azera Mehmood, a young resident of Indra Vihar near Delhi University.

“Even shopkeepers ran out of bottled water on the very first day of the crisis,” she added.

Residents of old Rajendra Nagar in west Delhi were agonised similarly when the
Delhi Jal Board (DJB) cut off the piped water supply. Some residents said they got to know about the water shortage only from the media.

“We had no clue and so we did not prepare ourselves. Later we had to rush to the
nearest parks to get water,” said Arpana Singh, one of the residents.

Priyanka Behl, a college student, said the DJB made no arrangements to deal with the shortage.  “There were no water tanks. We were left on our own to tackle the problem,” Behl said.

While some parts of the city did not receive even a drop of water on Tuesday and Wednesday, the situation improved slightly on Thursday with water seeping through the taps for around 30 minutes.

That triggered a mad frenzy with residents storing up water in every available bucket and pot.

The DJB closed down two of its water treatment plants this week after noticing that the ammonia content in the water source had gone up making the water unfit for drinking.