GURGAON the WATER-WASTE PORTRAIT the Millennium City of the National Capital Region Is Seriously Water-Stressed
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GURGAON THE WATER-WASTE PORTRAIT The millennium city of the National Capital Region is seriously water-stressed. Under the shadow of its gleaming highrises, residents are fighting a desperate battle to save their groundwater from being decimated by real estate developers and builders HATHNIKUND WATER SOURCES – FUTURE DELHI ajafgarh N d ra in i to Delh Yamunanagar Najafgarh Jheel Dharampur al n a C a er Babupur n iv u r m a Daultabad a n Y u n r m e a t l Y HUDA WTP s a e n Basai Road W a DHANWAPUR STPs C SEZ a n Basai Shimgarh Kheri u Karnal m CHANDU a Y BHUDERA Kadipur n WTP Gurgaon Village r Mulahera e t s a Dundahera E GURGAON Khandsa Sirhoi Panipat ISBT & MRTS Depot Existing town Sukhrali Rajiv Chowk Jiwanwali Kakaroi village Begampur Khatola City Centre DLF II 69 km (Future Islampur South City-I Nathupur source) DLF IV BEHRAMPUR DLF III STP Greenwood City Sushant Lok-I DLF I South City-II KAKAROI Sonepat Samaspur VILLAGE Ghasola B Wazirabadpur l a Baghpat a n d Sushant Lok-III Rohtak a C s y KHARKHAUDA h l a p N h p Suncity p C ur u R N S c u r a lla e n h Sushant Lok-II t a a l W Ulawas Ghata BERI n BAHADURGARH n o drai a arh Ghaziabad g fg Jhajjar r ja Delhi u a G N HUDA WTP Gurgaon Basai Road Faridabad Water treatment plant (WTP) nal Ca PATAUDI n BALLABGARH o Sewage treatment plant (STP) a g Agra Canal r SOHNA u G STP (proposed) Y PALWAL a NUH m u Waterways n HATHIN a r i v Disposal of sewage e r Water intake PUNAHANA FIROJPUR JHIRKA Municipal area Source: Anon 2011, 71-City Water-Excreta Survey, 2005-06, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi HARYANA THE CITY Municipal area 120 sq km Population (2005) 0.8 million Gurgaon Population (2011), as projected in 2005-06 1 million THE WATER Demand Total water demand as per city agency 184 MLD urgaon, in Haryana, a part of the National Capital Region Per capita water demand as per city agency 225 LPCD (NCR), has grown extensively in the last decade, largely Total water demand as per CPHEEO @ 150 LPCD 123 MLD G Sources and supply because it adjoins Delhi. According to legend, Gurgaon was named after Dronacharya, the renowned guru (teacher) in the Water sources Yamuna, groundwater epic Mahabharata. The region was given as gurudakshina to him Water sourced from surface sources 94% by his students, the Pandavas, and hence came to be known as Water sourced from ground sources 6% Guru-gram, which over the centuries became Gurgaon. Total water supplied 107 MLD The city presents an excellent example of a township where Per capita supply 130 LPCD the state’s initiative of involving the private sector in urban Leakage loss 15% development has been successful. However, the government itself Actual supply (after deducting leakage losses) 91 MLD has failed to keep pace with the growth led by the private sector Per capita supply (after leakage losses) 111 LPCD and develop first class civic infrastructure. Population served by water supply system 64% This has resulted in patches of new, gleaming, planned Per capita availability in the served area 157 LPCD housing structures –but in areas that are dilapidated and poorly Demand-supply gap (after leakage loss) 93 MLD Treatment connected, lacking adequate water or power supply, and having Number of WTPs 3 no proper sewage handling mechanisms. With more than 40 malls Total treatment capacity 273 MLD hugging the skylines and more on the way, the city is on its way Actual treatment 246 MLD towards becoming the ‘mall capital’ of India. Groundwater is the Future demand and supply key source of water, and the construction sector is the main Demand (2011), as projected in 2005-06 247 MLD guzzler. This unsustainable development has led to some obvious Augmentation needed to meet the demand 140 MLD consequences with wells running dry and the city turning into a Required increase in supply 131% concrete desert. THE SEWAGE Generation WATER Sewage generated as per CPCB 80 MLD Sewage generated as per city agency 80 MLD Collection DEMAND, SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION Length of sewerage network 45 km There are two agencies supplying water in Gurgaon, depending Population covered by sewerage network 30% on the administrative divisions: the Public Health and Area covered by sewerage network 50-60% Engineering Department (PHED) is responsible for the old city Treatment area (municipal limits), while the Haryana Urban Development Number of STPs 3 Authority (HUDA) takes care of the new city. The two seem to Total treatment capacity 150 MLD share a symbiotic relationship. Raw water sourcing and treatment Actual sewage treated 137 MLD is the overall responsibility of HUDA. While the HUDA sectors Disposal Yamuna river receive water directly from the Authority, the PHED gets bulk Source: Anon 2011, 71-City Water-Excreta Survey, 2005-06, Centre for Science 1 water transfers from HUDA for supply in the old city limits. and Environment, New Delhi Official estimation of the overall demand for water in Gurgaon is almost 51 per cent higher (see Table: The water)than the figure arrived at on the basis of the norm set by the Central Public Health and Environmental Engineering Organisation (CPHEEO). Supply does not match either demand estimation: the gap between official demand and supply is about 42 per cent.2 According to a 2006 draft report prepared by the Delhi-based engineering and construction consultancy, CH2MHILL, the total water supply in Gurgaon’s PHED limits amounted to a little over 30 million litre a day (MLD) for a population of 0.295 million, at a rate of 103 litre per capita daily (LPCD). The estimated water INDO-GANGETIC PLAINS GURGAON | 117 designed to carry almost 245 MLD of water at the head at Kakaroi TABLE: NOT ADDING UP village. About 50 per cent is lost while in transit through Gurgaon residents claim official figures are all wrong evaporation and diversion to villages and a township en route.8 However, the canal meets just 30 per cent of the city’s water Agency Population (in million) Water demand (in MLD) needs, says R S Rathee, president of the Qutub Enclave Residents’ 2007 2021 2007 2021 Welfare Association of DLF, which has been part of protests against Official figures 0.9 3.7 162 666 rampant extraction of groundwater by about 265 construction projects across the city. As a result of the gap in supply, there has JAFRA’s estimates 1.8 6 324 1,080 been large-scale extraction of groundwater by private tubewells, Source: Personal communication with JAFRA office bearers in May 2008 many of which are feeding these construction projects. The city’s Notes: MLD: million litre daily water table has fallen rapidly since the city started expanding in the 1980s, says Rathee.9 demand in this area was about 35 MLD. The PHED has divided its Officially, HUDA does not supply groundwater in its sectors. area into 11 water supply zones (about 400 km of pipelines); an At the time of the CSE survey, the old city, where the PHED estimated 35-40 per cent of the water it supplied, however, manages water supply, had 51 tubewells with a capacity to supply remained ‘unaccounted for’.3 9 MLD. About 40 of these tubewells were in operation, supplying The HUDA, on the other hand, has geographically divided the about 8 MLD of water.10 Thus, officially, groundwater constituted city into three sections with respect to water supply. Phase I covers just 6 per cent of the supply in Gurgaon. Palam Vihar and the HUDA sectors to the west, including Gurgaon town. Phase II covers the major colonies and HUDA sectors in the GLUED TO GROUNDWATER east, while Phase III covers DLF 4 and DLF 5, Sushant Lok 2 and But the actual scenario is something else. Gurgaon, ever since it Sushant Lok 3, South City 2 and HUDA sectors 45, 55, 56 and 57. came into being, has been drawing groundwater at an alarming According to information received in 2006 from HUDA, water rate. The withdrawals accelerated after the Haryana government was being supplied to individual households through a 506-km invited private enterprises to set up base in the city. Housing and piped network. About 0.6 million to 0.7 million people availed office complexes came up at dizzying speed, and went on of this supply, and around 95 per cent of the connections guzzling even larger amounts of groundwater – all free of cost – were metered. The HUDA was spending Rs 15 crore annually using better water ‘mining’ technologies. in operation and maintenance of the distribution network. The inevitable result: with the city’s expansion in the 1980s, R P Rohila, who was the then joint engineer at HUDA’s Basai water Gurgaon’s water table has fallen by over a metre each year, says treatment plant (WTP), claimed that all areas in Gurgaon were Rathee.11 By 2005-06, the water table had dwindled to as low as 40 being provided with water from the Western Yamuna Canal metre below ground level (m bgl) in low-lying areas. Shockingly, (WYC), except some parts in Phase III where lines were still there is no data on the number of borewells functional in being laid.4 Gurgaon, or how much groundwater is actually being extracted.12 But Gurgaon does suffer from unequal distribution – only According to the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB), as of 64 per cent of the city’s population had access to piped water in 2005-06, almost 70 per cent of Gurgaon’s supply came from 2005-06.