Protests over water shortage continue in Delhi

'Na bijli, na paani, yeh kaisi rajdhani' (No power, no water - what kind of a capital is this?) asked angry residents of the national capital as protests continued Wednesday over power cuts and water shortage.

Angry residents of the capital protested the erratic water supply by shouting slogans and breaking earthern pots in the middle of the road.

Complaining that there is no water supply for nearly two weeks and the little that they get is murky, people took to the roads in areas like Dabri, Janakpuri and Durga Park in west Delhi.

People also protested outside the local office of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in Janakpuri.

“There is no water for the last two weeks and whatever little water we get is very dirty and unfit for consumption. When we go to complain to DJB office, no one listens to us,” said Shalini Sinha, an exasperated homemaker in Janakpuri.

Ashok Das, another resident of the area, said: “All these officials are involved with the water mafia. They sell water to the mafia who make ice and sells it.”

Protests have been on in the national capital from more than a week now over water and power scarcity.

In the last few days, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has held meetings with the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and power distribution company BSES. While BSES has been warned by the chief minister to take care of power outages, DJB has been asked to penalise anyone found wasting water.

Delhi's estimated 14.8 million people require 3,973 million litres of water per day (MLD). According to a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) report, while the DJB purportedly supplies 3,336.9 MLD - which is far lower than the demand - the actual quantity reaching the end user is just 1,768.56 MLD.

Last updated on Jul 1^st, 2009 at 15:51 pm IST--IANS