Taking action on a petition submitted by environmental activists and residents of Dwarka, lieutenant-governor Tejendra Khanna finally intervened and issued orders on Friday to the Delhi Development Authority to expedite the work on revival of the Naya Johad water body. Mr Khanna has set a time frame of one month for all work, including desilting and cleaning of the water body and for the preservation of woodlands around it.
A group of citizens of Dwarka and Pochanpur village had ealier revived the water body at their own expense, but little did they expect that a senior DDA bureaucrat would put a spanner in their efforts.
Environmental activist Diwan Singh of Natural Heritage First along with a group of Dwarka residents took it upon themselves to revive the water bodies through desiltatiion and by linking them to storm water drains.
Diwan Singh explained, “We started the work last year by hiring an earth-moving machine at our own expense to desilt the water body which goes under the name of Naya Johad. We believed that this could prove to be a huge source of water.”
“On the basis of a conservative analysis by experts like Prof. Vikram Soni and Dr Shashank Shekhar of the Delhi University, we were able to deduce that 2 MGD of water could be additionally generated by rejuvenating the water bodies,” Mr Singh said.
“Infact, rather than pushing for rainwater harvesting, linking of storm water drains to water bodies is the best way to capture rainwater. We can go a step further and create mini forests around the water bodies which can be called Forest Acqua Pathways as these will help in maintaining the water table and in purifying the water,” he added.
Unfortunately, a senior DDA bureaucrat did not take kindly to their initiative and ordered that the silt that had been dug out be put back again as also the blocking of all the rainwater channels.
“The DDA officials perceived the public initiative as a threat to their authority,” said a resident of Dwarka Sector 23.
Water activists believe that rainwater harvesting (RWH) is a failed idea as most of the pits turn into soakpits and are dysfunctional.
A study by South Illinois University of a 33 hectare site in New Mexico has revealed that 50 per cent of precipitation can be recharged by linking storm water drains with ponds and water bodies.