Post-approval of land pooling policy DDA has now roped in an agency to access increase in water demand due to implementation of the land pooling policy. Under which around 1.7 million new dwelling units will be constructed in the Capital’s urban extension areas, said a DDA official.

In the first phase of the survey, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is assessing water demand in 16 priority sectors, and the report is likely to be ready by early next year. “We roped in an agency last year in November to assess how much additional water will be required once new developments come up. We will share the report with the Delhi Jal Board,” said a DDA official.

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The land pooling policy, which was notified twice (in 2013 and 2018), will be implemented in 110 urbanized villages on the outskirts of the city. Under the policy, village residents will pool in their vacant land to facilitate the planned development of the area. DDA has divided the entire land pooling area into 109 sectors, each of between 250 and 350 hectares.

The national capital gets close to 935 million gallons daily (mgd) of regular supply, while the estimated demand is 1,236 MGD. The 16 priority sectors are in villages in the north and north-west Delhi, including Pooth Kurd, Bawana, Daryapur Kalan, Nangal Thakran, Bazidpur Thakran, Akbarpurmazra, Tigipur, Mohammadpur Ramjanpur, Mukhmalpur, Jindpur, Gadi Khasro, Kadipur, Neelwal and Hiran Kudna.

Explaining the assessment process, a senior DDA official said, “We are finding out the existing water requirement in the sector, locating the water bodies, looking at the groundwater levels etc. An assessment about the increase in water demand will be done based on the available developable land in a particular sector and also the existing built-up areas such as unauthorised colonies, slums, villages falling in the sector.”

The firm doing the assessment will prepare a water master plan for each sector. Sites for underground reservoirs will be identified, the revival of water bodies, rainwater harvesting provisions, reuse of treated sewer water etc will be proposed. Each sector will be developed in such a way that there is zero discharge of wastewater,” said the official.

DDA officials said that the exercise has been undertaken in a bid to avoid a situation like in Dwarka, where it took over a decade to provide a regular water supply. In 2018, the DDA decided to reduce the floor-area-ratio (FAR) for residential areas from 400 to 200 citing scarcity of water.