New Delhi: More than a week after the operations at Chandrawal phase-II water treatment plant (WTP) came to a complete halt due to flooding of its pump house, the oldest water treatment facility in the Capital continues to struggle to limp back to normalcy.
According to the Delhi Jal Board, the legacy motors and electrical equipment are decades old, and their spare parts are not readily available. Moreover, the moisture in the pumps has led to multiple instances of faults, leading to tripping.
Consequently, the central Delhi catchment areas of the plant continue to face rationing, with the twice-a-day supply reduced to half, coupled with contamination issues.
A senior DJB official from Chandrawal plant said that the treatment units of the plant have been working since 1935 and 1955, but their outdated design and dilapidated state have led to multiple breakdowns and delayed restorations.
“The motors installed at Chandrawal phase-II WTP are customised old units with a 6.6 KV rating, and their spare parts are not readily available. These heavy-duty motors require considerable time for repair and restoration. To safeguard the repaired motors and prevent flashing or short-circuiting, extra precautions need to be taken, and the motors are being operated intermittently,” an official said, adding that it may take three more days to stabilise the whole system.
The city’s oldest plant has seen multiple outages due to repair works over the last year, including the maintenance on July 20 and August 4, leakage in the main rising supply line on November 16 and valve damage on August 18.
Earlier this year, the plant saw leakage on February 12. The current episode has lasted the longest as the operations of the plant were hit on March 22 and came to a complete halt after a major 600 mm diameter backwash pipeline near the pump house was damaged, leading to severe waterlogging within the premises. As a result, all electrical and mechanical (E&M) equipment became non-operational, bringing pumping activities to a standstill.
The impacted part of the plant supplies around 58 million gallons of drinking water in the Central and North Delhi areas. The DJB was able to restore pumping of around 47MGD on March 27 with the target to restore the remaining 11MGD by Saturday, but the motors again gave up.
“Around 5.30pm on Saturday evening, an 18MGD pump set again developed a fault, leading to tripping. We had to work overnight to restore the pumpset to operation at 1.45pm. At present, 47 MGD pumping is in operation, and water supply is being maintained as per the roster,” another DJB official said. Due to residual moisture, faults have been repeatedly occurring in the repaired motors during operational hours, affecting the normal water supply.
Even as the plant awaits full restoration, the DJB has enforced a new roster for water supply in the plant’s catchment area.
The DJB also released a revised water supply roster during the day, stating water will be available only once a day in parts of the city on Friday, as opposed to twice a day during normal operations.
It said areas like Hindu Rao Hospital, Civil Lines, Kamla Nagar, Roop Nagar, Shakti Nagar, parts of Delhi University, Vijay Nagar, Roop Nagar, Paharganj, Karol Bagh, Rajendra Nagar, Patel Nagar and East Patel Nagar will only be getting water in the morning hours - while others such as parts of Shastri Nagar and Inderlok will get supply in the evening as restoration work continues.
Several tail-end areas still await restoration. Prateek Ran, a resident of Rani Jhansi DDA complex, said his locality is suffering from water scarcity and there’s no clarity on when this will be resolved. “The situation has become worse now. It’s really surprising that people have to fight for basic necessities,” he added.
NS Patel from Ramjas said that over the past few days, there has been no water supply near Ramjas Ground in Patel Nagar. “The government and DJB should understand how much trouble people are facing. DJB and the government don’t care at all; they’re just saying work is happening at war footing.”
Complaints regarding no water supply were also received from Tigri Extension, several blocks of Old Rajinder Nagar, and block 25 of West Patel Nagar, among other places.
Ashok Bhasin from the North Delhi Residents Welfare Federation said that while water has started coming in many areas, the timing has been reduced to half, and many areas are getting muddy water. “Full restoration has still not occurred. The plant is very old, and the quality of spare parts being used is very poor,” he added.
DJB has said that to provide interim relief and ensure continued water availability, around 100 additional water tankers have been deployed in the affected areas. These tankers have been diverted from other parts of Delhi to maintain an equitable supply during the disruption.