By staff reporter
New Delhi
Repeated reports concerning water contamination issues have been emanating from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation which appear to be motivated and incorrect. In fact the recent reference to joint water testing by North Delhi Municipal Corporation and DJB has not been corroborated by DJB Zonal Staff and no such exercise as claimed has been carried out in the presence of concerned DJB officers nor have the results claimed been shared and verified with DJB. However, DJB is trying to ascertain the authenticity of the joint sampling claimed to have been carried out by MCD.
In fact, in the recent joint sampling carried out by DJB and the North Municipal body in the areas of Rohini, Pitampura, and Sarswati Vihar, out of the 77 water samples lifted and tested at the consumers end, all were found fit for drinking i.e. a zero failure rate.
It is interesting to note that, as claimed in the report, the total number of samples lifted is 6922, out of which 3387 were from North Delhi Municipal Corporation area, while 3535 were from the rest of Delhi. Of these, 507 samples have allegedly failed. Out of the total failed samples 487 are from the North Delhi Municipal Corporation area and only 20 have failed from the rest of Delhi, which would indicate that the failure rate for the rest of Delhi excluding North Delhi Municipal Corporation area is only .0056%. This seems to indicate that the report is not based on actual facts and appears to be highly biased.
DJB lifts about 300 samples a day. As a part of increased surveillance for summer and monsoon months, the number of samples lifted have been increased to 450 samples per day. These samples are lifted every day from various locations from all parts of the city, including from the consumers end, by the Treatment and Quality Control Wing which is an independent unit, headed by a Director level officer. Testing of water samples is governed by BIS standards IS: 10500:2003. Water is tested for physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters.
The results of the water sampling tests are compiled every week on the basis of daily reports received by the DTQC. These results are available on DJB’s website www.delhijalboard.nic.in and are displayed on TV tickers of 3 news channels namely Delhi Aaj Tak, Sahara Samay NCR and Total TV.
In addition to the tests conducted by DTQC, DJB also gets its water tested through an independent National Scientific agency NEERI (National Environment Engineering Research Institute). NEERI is an ISO 9001-9001-2008 certified organization and one of the leading organizations on Environmental Engineering and Research.
We wish to reiterate that water being supplied in the city by DJB through its infrastructure is potable and free of contamination. An established mechanism set up by DJB to ensure that the water supplied meets the BIS standards is fully functional / operational and weekly reports received from the Treatment & Quality Control wing regarding the samples collected from all parts of the city on a daily basis reflects that, the percentage of unsatisfactory samples ranges between 2 – 2.5%, which is well within the 5% acceptable limit of WHO standards.
DJB would like to assure its consumers that water being supplied by it is safe, potable and meets BIS standards. Further, in case of any local contamination, residents are advised to contact their nearest water emergency and DJB Zonal office immediately to address the problem.
