New Delhi, Oct 26 (PTI) All household water connections in Delhi will now be provided by the Delhi Jal Board itself, without any role of intermediaries, Water Minister Satyendar Jain Tuesday said.

Jain, who chaired the 158th board meeting of the DJB, said the Delhi government is committed to laying sewer lines in all housing colonies within three years.

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"In this regard, a project to lay sewer lines in Sangam Vihar has been approved. Further, the laying of sewer lines and construction of sewage treatment plants at the Shahbad group of colonies, Sarangpur, Galibpur, Kazipur and Khera Dabar has been approved and will be completed within two years," a DJB statement quoted the minister as saying.

Jain, who is also the Delhi Jal Board chairperson, said all household water connections will now be provided by the Delhi Jal Board itself and the intermediaries will be removed.

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The DJB will lay water pipelines and install meters at consumers' premises. This approval will help in resolving complaints of water contamination, reduce unauthorised connections and increase the number of functional meters in the DJB network, according to the statement.

The DJB currently maintains over 13,000 kilometers of water pipeline network but the connection from the DJB pipeline to individual households was the responsibility of consumers.

Many times, it was observed that damaged pipelines and leakage at joints led to water contamination which could not be resolved by the DJB because it was beyond its jurisdiction.

With the new policy, the DJB can now rectify problems of old pipelines in the existing colonies as well as provide new meter connections in the upcoming colonies, the authorities said.

The water minister also approved a project to install a 20 MGD (million gallons per day) reverse osmosis plant at the Okhla Water Treatment Plant.

The raw water source for the RO plant will be lakes and groundwater. The project, expected to be completed by May 2022, will provide immediate relief to 8-10 constituencies in Delhi.

The water utility plans to install RO plants of a total 100 MGD capacity in the next eight months in areas where groundwater is unusable due to high salinity and levels of total dissolved solids.

For improved participation of the public in the governance system, the DJB approved the constitution of water and sewerage committees at the ward and zonal level comprising civil society representatives and DJB officials. The ward level committee will have seven members and the zonal committee 12 members.

The DJB also simplified the financial assistance scheme for installation of rainwater harvesting systems. For residential houses having an area of less than 500 square meters, financial assistance of Rs 25,000 will be provided and for residential houses having an area of 500 square meters and above, Rs 50,000 will be provided.

To reduce the pollution load in the Yamuna, the utility has approved the installation of aeration devices at 14 STPs with a capacity of 220 MGD.

The aeration system will improve water quality parameters from the existing Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) level of 20-30 mg/L to less than 10 mg/L. The Rs 153-crore project will be completed in a year.

The project will reduce the pollutant load in the Yamuna by 10,000 kg daily.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)