The answer to Delhi’s perennial water crisis could lie in two successful public-private partnership (PPP) models — one in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and the other in the twin cities of Hubli and Dharwad in Karnataka. Taking a cue from these two cities, the Delhi government has started work on involving private players in water distribution from underground reservoirs and treatment plants. It has claimed that pilot projects in pockets of Malviya Nagar, Vasant Vihar-Mehrauli and Nangloi would ensure round-the-clock water supply in these areas, without any change in tariff. The private company would be responsible for maintaining the pipeline network and repairing leakages in localities selected for the projects. In return, the company will be paid a “fee”. This is part of Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s push for privatisation of water, which he hopes will solve the crisis in Delhi that touched its peak during the dry months this summer. Approving her government’s plan, the Planning Commission last week allocated Rs 90,000 crore to Delhi under the 12th Plan. This includes budget for strengthening the water distribution network. The Delhi Jal Board, buoyed by the Planning Commission’s allocation and Dikshit’s plan, recently studied the Nagpur and Hubli-Dharwad models. Officials of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has claimed that private players were roped in to create a mechanism for preventing water wastage and upgrading infrastructure. The project also envisaged minimising leakages in pipelines and revenue loss from faulty meters. Nagpur mayor Anil Sole said residents of the project areas initially resisted it, fearing that their water bills would hit the ceiling. “The water bills did go up drastically, but this was because of over-consumption from continuous supply, and poor plumbing and storage at homes. We held awareness camps and issued dummy bills for the first two cycles. This helped people understand how the new system will work. Since then, it has been smooth sailing,” he said. Sole said the pilot project catered to nearly 200,000 people, while “nearly 30 lakh residents will benefit when the entire city comes under the system”. Privatisation has been a success for the Hubli-Dharwad Municipal Corporation (HDMC) that implemented the scheme four years ago in eight wards — four each in Hubli and Dharwad. These areas enjoy non-stop supply, while the rest of the twin cities get it once in eight days. The beneficiaries said they did initially get “inflated” bills, but many of them have worked out a way to keep it down. “We use water depending on our capacity to pay. Since we have uninterrupted supply these days, we don’t have to worry about storing water. Moreover, this water is clean and safe,” Rukhsaar, resident of a Dharwad slum, said. Mayor Pandurang Patil said privatisation has helped curb water wastage to a large extent “because people have to pay for every unit they consume”. He said details were being worked out to implement the project in both cities, but the civic agency would not opt for “private investment”. “That’s one reason why we are reluctant to apply for funds from JNNURM, which makes 30 per cent private investment mandatory,” he said. BIGGER CHALLENGE The authorities in Nagpur and Hubli-Dharwad were of the view that the challenge would be much bigger in Delhi, which depends on water from neighbouring states and has longstanding water-sharing disputes with them. Absence of “raw water” could be the biggest impediment for Delhi because its primary sources are rivers and canals flowing from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab, they said. This came to the fore this summer as Chief Minister Dikshit was forced to do some hard negotiations with her Haryana counterpart B S Hooda after the neighbouring state cut supply to the city’s treatment plants. Still, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) hopes that privatisation will go a long way in tiding over the crisis because the PPP model can prevent leakages and theft. The DJB admits that, at present, it doesn’t earn any revenue from 68 per cent of its water because of “leaks in the system”. The Nagpur model, which the DJB wishes to replicate, has brought down leakages to 37 per cent in 50 months. A DJB official said: “We don’t have to move mountains to implement the project. There is already a working system in place. All we need to do is fine-tune it. For instance, Malviya Nagar, the city’s first project area, already gets eight to 16 hours of water supply every day.” Experts, however, pointed to certain flaws in Delhi’s detailed project report. They said areas such as Sangam Vihar (Asia’s largest unauthorised colony dependent solely on water tankers), Harijan Basti, Khirki Village, Indra Enclave and Freedom Fighters Colony have been left out.