Letter to Hon'ble LG of Delhi : Not to Discontinue the “Life Line Water Scheme” provided by the previous government in Delhi.

National Platform Against Water Privatisation (NPAWP)

Citizen’s Front for Water Democracy (CFWD)

To                                                                                                                    28^th February 2014

Hon’ble Lieutenant Governor of Delhi

Raj Niwas: 6- Raj Niwas Marg,

Civil Lines, Delhi-110054                                   

                                                                                   

Subject:   Not to Discontinue the “Life Line Water Scheme” provided by the

                 previous government in Delhi.

Dear Sir,

We are quite disappointed to know through mainstream media that the “free of cost lifeline water scheme” started by the previous government in Delhi is at the threat of being discontinued from the next financial year (2014-15) starting from 1^st of April. Under the scheme, people with metered connections are entitled to free water of up to 20,000 litres (20 Kl)per month.

It is quite strange that the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has put forward its demand to continue this scheme to the Central Government but the latter decided to do away with this subsidy in the Interim Budget for 2014-15. This indicate a thinly disguised attempt by the Central government to help the private water operators and to push the water privatization in Delhi which got impacted with the pronouncement of the free water scheme in Delhi. If this pro-public and environment friendly scheme be reversed; this will be a big blow to the fundamental human rights of the people for access to safe water as well as a big setback to the much-needed positive steps towards conservation of water through the lifeline water scheme.

Unfortunately, this disturbing news has come despite a clear direction from your office, after the review meeting with the Jal Board as well as Delhi governmental officials, where you clearly expressed that “none of the decision of the former government will be scrapped, including the scheme to provide 667 litres of free water daily for domestic consumption to each household having a meter. You also asked the officials to ensure that the scheme reaches its intended beneficiaries and is not misused by unscrupulous elements”. 

The CFWD and NPAWP have, time and again, demanded for supply of a minimum quantity of free of cost lifeline water to the citizens of India, particularly to the people of Delhi. In the Peoples Water Manifesto prepared by us just before the Assembly Election in five states in November – December 2013, we urged all the key political parties to give their commitment

to provide minimum quantity of free of cost potable water to each family member in those states in order to ensure water security along with the food security under the National Food Security Act 2013. We firmly believe that food security can’t be achieved without ensuring water security. Besides that we had also demanded for the setting up of a network of Piaos (Water kiosk) and public stand posts in different locations to restore the traditional service of free water supply to the people, especially the poor, homeless and other destitute communities on the roads or in jhuggi jhopries, as well as for passerby on the roads.

On 30^th December 2013, the former government in Delhi made an unprecedented decision for supplying 20 Kilo-liters (KL) of “life line water” per family per month to each household ‘free of cost’.  We sincerely  believe that  this scheme would bring  multifold  benefits to water consumers in Delhi by ensuring their right to water besides promoting water conservation through reduction of water consumption by consumers in order to avail the benefit. This scheme would encourage DJB consumers to use precious water resource more cautiously and judiciously because every drop of piped water would count. In this age of high inflation and super increased water tariff, every household would try their best to conserve this important resource to keep their consumption below 20Kl to save money on their water bill. This may result in managing our existing water supplies more efficiently and it may also help to ensure better water supplies to water deficit areas in the city. However, if they fail to do so, the consumers would not only be deprived off the subsidy but would have to cough up much more even if they exceed their water usage by a liter and would come under the bracket of 21 Kl. This will also encourage non-metered consumers to get water meters installed to avail this benefit, thus would encourage better management and auditing of water supply in Delhi.

The ‘Lifeline Water Scheme’ will be a breakthrough for water conservation in Delhi. It would achieve what the previous governments failed to achieve even by spending crores of rupees to create awareness on water saving and water conservation through awareness drives and advertisements. We hope that this scheme will bring in incredible results on water saving through people’s self-governance on water use to avail this scheme. It is difficult to imagine how much water would be saved but the saved water would be lifeline for those who are not getting DJB water at present and can be supplied to water deficit areas.

We therefore sincerely urge you to please don’t discontinue the lifeline water scheme in Delhi in order to guarantee fundamental human rights to water and to ensure water security to the people of Delhi.

Yours’ sincerely,

SA Naqvi                                                                                                                 

Convenor, CFWD

National Coordinator, NPAWP