Water Contamination in Delhi
Delhi faces recurring episodes of water contamination, underscoring the need to move from emergency repairs to preventive measures. The focus should be on real-time monitoring, updated infrastructure maps, routine water testing, and planned pipeline replacements.
Causes of Contamination
- Contamination usually occurs under three conditions:
- A pollution source near a drinking water line, such as:
- Leaking sewers
- Overflowing drains
- Polluted groundwater
- Sewage-laden stormwater
- Construction waste
- Stagnant contaminated water
- A pathway for entry like:
- Corroded pipes
- Damaged joints
- Leaking valves
- Weak ferrules
- Abandoned pipelines
- Cross-connections
- Poor repairs
- A hydraulic trigger, such as:
- Low pressure
- Back-suction
- Flow reversal
- A pollution source near a drinking water line, such as:
- Household pumps and borewells exacerbate issues by drawing contaminated water through weak network points in low-pressure areas.
Current Challenges
Dr. Fawzia Tarannum highlights that water and sewer lines often run side by side. A breach in either can lead to contamination if the water line is not continuously pressurized. Delhi's growing demand, increasing density, and aging distribution network compound these issues. Nearly 40% of supplied water is lost as non-revenue water, indicating inefficiencies.
Proposed Solutions
- Shift from complaint-based detection to real-time monitoring using IoT-based sensors to alert officials of pressure drops.
- Integrate water distribution with Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems for remote monitoring.
- Support these systems with accurate digital maps of water and sewer pipelines, including vulnerable points.
- Replace aging pipelines with parallel investment in monitoring and mapping to avoid transferring old weaknesses to new infrastructure.
