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Despite the increase in the availability of raw water and treatment capacity in the last 20 years, bottlenecks in water supply along developing sectors (58 to 118) due to the non-availability of land and issues in the legacy supply network taken over by Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) in 2017 have ensured that residents continue to face problems.

Likewise, people living at the tail-end of the water supply network along Golf Course Road and in areas around Palam Vihar, sectors 21, 22, 23, South City 1, 2 DLF phases 1 (Blocks D and E), 2, 3 suffer due to erratic supply during peak summer.

GMDA officials said a major challenge in streamlining the city’s water supply system is that while the Haryana Shahari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), then Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda), prepared the base supply network in the early nineties for sectors 1 to 58, by the time the GMDA took over, a majority of the population had settled in sectors 58 to 115, leading to the authority scrambling to create infrastructure. Sudhir Rajpal, CEO, GMDA, said the authority had identified several bottlenecks in laying roads, water pipelines and other infrastructure by the time he took over in February 2021. “While many issues have been resolved, several challenges remain,” he said.

Since taking over the system, the authority said it has replaced old pipes, resolved power supply issues at water treatment plants, and laid new pipelines in almost all developing sectors.

To be sure, Gurugram gets its water from the Yamuna river via Kakroi headworks near Sonipat through the Gurgaon Water Supply (GWS) channel (since 1995) and the NCR water channel (since 2010).

The GWS channel, which was constructed between 1992 and 1994, was remodeled in 2006 and 2007 to increase its capacity to 175 cusecs. The present capacity of NCR water channel is 500 cusecs.

Dr Shiv Singh Rawat, superintending engineer, Haryana irrigation and water resources department, said the GMDA is working to expand the capacity of GWS channel from 175 to 475 cusecs in the next few years. Later, the augmentation of NCR water channel’s capacity from 500 cusecs to 800 cusecs will also be taken up, he said.

As per Mahindra - TERI Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Habitat, which released a report titled ‘Water Sustainability Assessment of Gururgam City’ in 2019, the average per capita supply of water across the city was 136LCPD (litre per capita per day) in 2011, which is less than the 150-200LCPD prescribed by the National Building Code. The total water supply was 132.9MLD across the city which was less than the demand of 195.4MLD in 2011. By 2019, government agencies boosted the city’s ability to treat water and increased the supply to 450MLD against the demand of 460MLD, says the TERI report.

The HSVP built the first water treatment unit in Basai in 1996 with a capacity of 90 MLD. “The capacity was increased to 270MLD as two more units were made functional in 2007 and 2009. In 2012, the first 100 MLD unit a new treatment plant at Chandu Budhera became functional, the second and third units with a capacity of 100 MLD each became functional in 2015 and 2016,” said Subash Piplani, retired sub divisional engineer, HSVP, who worked at these plants for several years.

Piplani said that to resolve water supply issues in tail-end areas and Old Gurgaon, which has witnessed rapid population growth, there is a need to augment filtration and supply by around 90MLD. “We had faced similar issues in 2016, but resolved them by replacing the old pipeline. The issue, however, has resurfaced,” he said.

Civic agencies say Gurugram now has the capacity to store 870MLD of water at its treatment plants in Chandu Budhera and Basai, but can only treat 570MLD. Bansal said that currently the authority supplying around 540 - 545 MLD to consumers residing in private colonies as well as those developed by HSVP and Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation (HSIIDC), and those under the jurisdiction of Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG).

GMDA officials said that with rising population density, particularly in new sectors, there is an increase in water demand, especially from high-rises along the Dwarka Expressway and Southern Peripheral Road (SPR). In anticipation of the rise in demand, the authority has proposed the construction of a 100MLD filtration plant at Chandu Budhera, and a storage tank with 90MLD capacity along with a filtration plant at Basai by next year, they said.

“We are working to increase the filtration capacity and, hopefully, with timely approvals and execution, we will be able to treat 190MLD more water in the next one year,” Rajesh Bansal, chief engineer, GMDA, said.

Another key challenge for the authority is to ensure that water is supplied to the large number of condominiums that have come up along Dwarka Expressway and Southern Peripheral Road (SPR) where no pipelines existed earlier.

As per the department of town and country planning, the number of projects in developing sectors has picked up significant pace in last three years, and the population is rising. A report released by Anarock Consultants this year said that almost 50,000 new units were launched in the last eight or nine years along Dwarka Expressway and SPR. A majority of these will be delivered by 2024, while 25% are ready to move into.

Residents, meanwhile, say that authorities need to significantly upgrade the infrastructure in developing areas. “The population is set to increase further in the next two years as projects get completed. We have applied for piped water supply. These approvals must be expedited,” said Pravin Malik, president, SARE Homes RWA.

Bansal said the authority has so far managed to lay a water pipeline network in sectors 58 to 72 and from 81 to 115. Pipelines are still being laid in sectors 72 to 80 and once these become operational, there will be adequate water supply in these areas as well.

“Due to non-availability or legal issues, there were issues in acquiring land for construction of infrastructure in sectors 72 to 80, and, as a result pipelines and other utilities in these areas were delayed. Efforts are being made to remove these bottlenecks in the coming days,” said Bansal.

Colonies at the tail-end of the supply system, however, are the most severely affected—and have been for over a decade. Thousands of residents of DLF phases 1 (blocks D and E) 2, 3, 4, areas along Golf Course Road, sectors 21, 22 and 23 and some colonies adjoining Palam Vihar and Sheetla Mata Road have been complaining of the lack of water—especially in the summer-- for years, but to no avail.

Authorities, however, said they are working to resolve the issues at the tail-end of the supply and have taken several steps, such as laying parallel distribution lines in boosting stations, plugging permanent leakages at Signature Tower Crossing, Ardee City, sectors 15 and 17, as well as some other areas. “These points witnessed regular leakages and pressurised the network. The old pipes have been replaced and the supply is smooth now,” said Bansal.

Bansal also said the authority have identified 20,000 water connections in colonies along Basai Road, and between Hero Honda Chowk and Rajiv Chowk, which receive water directly from the boosting station in the area due to a lack of underground tanks in these areas.

“These colonies get 24-hour water supply, which needs to be regulated so that the water saved can be supplied to colonies in the tail-end areas. We have taken up the issue of construction of underground tanks with the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG),” said Bansal, adding that this work will be completed in next six months.

GMDA is also working closely with the irrigation and electricity departments as they are critical to running the water supply system in the city. “We have formed coordination groups and share realtime data on raw water supply, availability and usage. The electricity department also responds to our problems in realtime and this has helped us run the system better,” said Bansal.

Bansal also said that they deployed Centralized Integrated Water Management System in 2019 on a 15km pipeline from Dundahera to Basai to improve the distribution of water and ensure adequate availability and pressure in tail-end areas. This system has helped them monitor realtime water supply, and reduce wastage of water.

Bansal said that apart from streamlining supply, the authority is also pushing for the use of treated wastewater on a large scale so that the pressure on drinking water is reduced. “We will focus on expanding our capacity, and recycle wastewater to ensure availability of water to residents,” he said.

Experts, meanwhile, are of the opinion that given the rising population of Gurugram and a lack of local water resources, the city is in dire need of a water management master plan. “The water supply from Yamuna needs to be more efficient as there is lot of wastage. Authorities must focus on the use of treated wastewater in construction, housing and industry. Rainwater harvesting is also a must,” said Prof Gauhar Mehmood of Jamia Millia Islamia, who has worked extensively on water issues in the city.

Abhishek Behl is principal correspondent, Hindustan Times in Gurgaon Bureau. He covers infrastructure, planning and civic agencies in the city. He has been covering Gurgaon as correspondent for the last 10 years, and has written extensively on the city. ...view detail

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