From contamination to unavailability of water, complaints pile up at Delhi Jal Board as citizens bear brunt of poor grievance redressal mechanism

On a usual hot summer day in Delhi, a large group of women haggled the councillor’s assistant at the municipal councillor’s office in Sangam Vihar demanding to know when they’ll receive their daily quota of water. The assistant swiftly called Delhi Jal Board and told them the street number where water tankers were to be sent. The women, however, unsatisfied by this phone call, asked how can they be sure the tankers will show up. The women were least bothered to know that the Delhi Jal Board comes under the authority of the state government, i.e. their MLA and not their ward councillor. What they needed was water and did not care about who the concerned authority is.[caption id=“attachment_6867351” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A Delhi Jal Board office. File image News18[/caption] Interestingly, their MLA also happens to be the vice-chairman of the Delhi Jal Board. The 1916 complaint number which handles water woes is everything but helpful. Unavailability of water has become a daily reality in the area. Be it the municipal councillors or the MLAs of Delhi, they point to water issues being one of the topmost problems faced by citizens in the National Capital. According to Praja’s report on Civic Issues Registered by Citizens and Deliberations by Municipal Councillors in Delhi Ward Committees(MCD) and MLAs in the State Assembly sessions, the number of complaints registered at the Delhi Jal Board has seen a 39 percent increase from 2015 to 2018. Based on data received after filing RTIs, the report also states that complaints relating to ‘No Water’ have increased from 34,554 in 2015 to 86,637 in 2018, a 151 percent increase. Complaints of contamination of water have increased by 34 percent from 2015 to 2018 and there has been a rise in complaints from 2015 to 2018 related to drainage (111 percent), road (46 percent) and sewer (46 percent). To add to this in 2018, 34,098 complaints were made to the DJB which did not fall under its jurisdiction and were transferred to other departments, categorised as ‘other’. Faced with a lack of awareness on the multiplicity of authorities that plagues governance of Delhi and an inadequate grievance redressal mechanism, people reach out to whichever elected representative they find more accessible. This everyday situation, that citizens have simply made their peace with, spells out lackadaisical governance that is anything but citizen-friendly. While a severe water crisis is now hitting many cities across the country and the world, the situation in Delhi is even more worrying since the grievance redressal mechanism is also in need of a serious upgrade. Affluent pockets and people in Delhi will sail through the crisis due to higher ability to pay for water, it is going to be the people living in the margins of the city and in pockets with little to zero urban development that will be hit the first and the most. While the Central government has made tall claims of providing piped drinking water to every rural household by 2024, the Niti Aayog report on Composite Water Resources Management stated that Delhi among 21 other cities is going to run out of water very soon. Only setting up rainwater harvesting in government offices and wastewater treatment in schools is not going to help. Cities like Delhi will need to make a comprehensive water resources rejuvenation plan that includes households from all economic strata and co-operation of the multiple governments and agencies. Further, it needs to strengthen its grievance redressal mechanism, by having an integrated online management system for all governing bodies, whereby complaints are routed to the concerning body based on whose jurisdiction it falls under. The complaint management system should also have a feedback mechanism and conduct a regular complaint audit through a survey to find out whether complainants are satisfied with the resolution provided by the concerned authority.