University of Delhi: Water Crisis, Regulation and Solutions

North District is bounded by the Yamuna River and North East District on the east, North West district on the west and Central District on the

south. The district covers geographical area of 60 sq. km. The district is divided into three tehsils namely Sadar Bazar, Kotwali and Civil Lines. The district has a population of 8,83,418 as per the census, 2011 and average population density of 14,724 persons per sq. km. The district falls in Yamuna sub-basin and forms part of the Ganga basin. The entire district forms part of Yamuna River water shed. North District has mixed development with unplanned and planned areas. This district has posh residential colonies, pre 1962 residential colonies and rehabilitation colonies. This district has prestigious Delhi University, Northern Ridge, ISBT and Tis Hazari Courts. The forest cover of the district is 4.81 sq.km. Approximately, 0.24 sq.km area of the district is under water bodies.

University campus in north Delhi is one of the VIP areas comes under civil lines with lots of modern facilit­­­­ies and services but Water is still a big challenge in this area, University campus has more than 10 colleges and more than 20 hostels here, each hostel has minimum 800-1000 students. Students still faces multiple problems related to water supply, every year most of the students faces health issue like cholera, diarrhea, typhoid due to contaminated water.

Water is need of each individual, in university campus bad quality of water and shortage of water is not only faced by students but faculty, local people and others also faced similar issue, here in this article we are going to analyse the situation of water problems in campus and local people around the campus.

DELHI UNIVERSITY- NORTH CAMPUS:

Water is directly stored in the tanks of the college via ground water exploration and direct supply pipeline from Delhi Jal board (DJB), this water then used in hostel and all over the campus for drinking. In campus for drinking purpose there are multiple RO and Purifier is available but for other purposes, water used directly even direct supply water has sometimes high turbidity, some college still faced pipeline issue, like: “Jesus and Mary College does not have pipelines installed in the college which is why there’s always a water shortage in the college. The entire college has just one tank installed which gets exhausted within very less time,” says a second-year student of Jesus and Mary College who wishes to remain anonymous.

Water Problems in campus:

Ø Water Quality is very low, water is contaminated and spread disease in Hostel.

Ø Purifier and RO is out of service and not check time to time, most of the time purifier just supply water directly without purifying and water cooler is used only to cool the water and in case of chilled water, it is not possible to distinguish the water taste and even realize that it is contaminated.

Ø In summer time water shortage is very common in campus, even drinking water gets shortage.

Ø Separate Pipeline is not available in most of the college ex. Above example of JMC.

Ø Quality Regulation and lacks of information.

Ø Not any specific methods given by administration of campus to check quality of water used inside the campus.

Ø Leakage and losses of water is very common problem not only inside the campus but outside also.

Ø Rainwater harvesting is necessary to recharge and development of ground water, but most of the college neglect this and not take responsibility of rainwater harvesting while in 2018 NGT specially Warned all Colleges regarding Rainwater harvesting.

Turbid water In Hostel campus

Turbidity is a measure of the degree to which the water loses its transparency due to the presence of suspended particulates. The more total suspended solids in the water, the murkier it seems and the higher the turbidity.
Turbidity is considered as a good measure of the quality of water.
 
Turbidity is measured in NTU: Nephelometric Turbidity Units. The instrument used for measuring it is called nephelometer or turbidimeter, which measures the intensity of light scattered at 90 degrees as a beam of light passes through a water sample.

There are various parameters influencing the cloudiness of the water. Some of these are:

Ø Phytoplankton

Ø Sediments from erosion

Ø Resuspended sediments from the bottom (frequently stir up by bottom feeders like carp)

Ø Waste discharge

Ø Algae growth

Ø Urban runoff

Problems due to turbid and contaminated water:

Ø Extra Financial Burden of Water: during summer the shortage of drinking water is very frequent and students are forced to drink saline water or buy water from outside in 20 liters jar. Due to This, extra financial burden increases on students.

Ø Health issues: During monsoon season, in north campus roads and other pipeline are flooded because of bad drainage system here, that contaminated rainwater mixed with supply pipeline during monsoon and rainy season, which used in hostel and college drinking water and most of the student faces health issue in this season like Diarrhea, typhoid, and cholera. 

Water system (Pipeline structure) in Hostel:

In hostel there are two separate pipeline one is for drinking water that directly comes from Delhi Jal Board, and other is saline water comes from ground water borewell system, the quality of ground water is very worse in the north campus.

Condition of ground water in North Delhi, a study of CGWB (Central Groundwater Board) given below:

As we can see the PH level is High, and EC (Electric Conductivity) is 600-5200 range which is unexpectedly high according to WHO standards EC range should not be more than 400, in North Delhi it is very high. While water is saline in nature because of high level of sodium (47-998 mg/L) and Sulphate (46-496 mg/L).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenges in water system in campus:

 

Ø Water wastage: biggest challenge of water system in campus is water losses and wastage. Lets take example of KMC (KiroriMal College) Hostel, where more than 500 students are in hostel and total 4 toilets in 2 floor of 65 year old building, with 5-6 drinking water facilities. Here each toilets has leakage of water and losses of water is continuous because of old and damaged Taps.

Wastage is not only because of damaged Tap, but because of multiple reason listed below:

 

1. Unconsciousness of campus Employee: many times, employee just switch on the motor and forget to check, and tank always overflowed many times. the overflow water leaked from the wall and roof.

 

2. Old Infrastructure: tanks in the campus have age of many decades, and so the pipeline. This causes for leakages from the wall and from the tanks.

 

3. Rainwater Harvesting system, is still not available inside the college campus after so many years of NGT warning. College campus has no open water

body that can recharge the ground water.

 

4. Lack of Technological Advancement in Water leakage detection and alarming technology, campus water wastage is more because of overflow that can be solve by alarming and better technological system.

 

Ø Chemical Discharge in Groundwater and sewage By Chemistry Labs: every college has its chemical laboratories and courses related to chemical/chemistry and hundreds of chemistry students are there in one college, and these labs produced chemicals in each practical class and that chemical is directly sink into sewage and in ground, which is very worse impact on the ground water there are more than 10 colleges in north campus. We can just imagine how much chemical directly dispose into ground water and sewage.

 

Proper regulation on disposal of these chemicals in campus will help to reduce chemical pollution in ground water. Not only industries are responsible for these pollutions but education institution and even each individual is responsible for this.

 

Ø Water Shortage: water shortage is most frequent in summer session, drinking water has restricted to timeline means only in that time slots water will be transmitted which cause water shortage in summer and students used to drink water from purchasing 20 liters jars from the market.

Campus has not enough tanks to meet the need of whole campus and further cause shortage. College don’t spend needful amount on water infrastructure.

 

Causal Diagrams of challenges:

 

 

Here in the causal diagram of challenges, we can analyse the relationship between different variables of the challenges and its impacts on other variables as we already discussed above.

 

 

Water Regulation In Educational Institutions:

 

water regulation and commission are lacks in Indian schools and colleges to regulate the quality and quantity of water used in these educational institutions.

According to world health organization’s (WHO) guidelines, there are some standards that should be followed by educational institutions and regularly watch the health and quality of water.

“Diseases related to inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene are a huge burden in developing countries. It is estimated that 88% of diarrhoeal disease is caused by unsafe water supply, and inadequate sanitation and hygiene (WHO, 2004c). Many schools serve communities that have a high prevalence of diseases related to inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene, and where child malnutrition and other underlying health problems are common. Schools, particularly those in rural areas, often completely lack drinking-water and sanitation and handwashing facilities; alternatively, where such facilities do exist they are often inadequate in both quality and quantity. Schools with poor water, sanitation and hygiene conditions, and intense levels of person-to-person contact, are high-risk environments for children and staff, and exacerbate children’s particular susceptibility to environmental health hazards. Children’s ability to learn may be affected by inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene conditions in several ways. These include helminth infections (which affect hundreds of millions of school-age children), long-term exposure to chemical contaminants in water (e.g. lead and arsenic), diarrhoeal diseases and malaria infections, all of which force many schoolchildren to be absent from school. Poor environmental conditions in the classroom can also make both teaching and learning very difficult.” (WHO)

 

WHO clearly defined the water related problems in educational institutions and give directives to state and policy makers to solve these challenges:

These guidelines deal specifically with water, sanitation and hygiene, and are designed to be used in schools and colleges in low-cost settings in low- and medium-resource countries to:

Ø assess prevailing situations and plan for required improvements;

Ø develop and reach essential safety standards as a first goal;

Ø support the development and application of national policies. The guidelines are written for use by education managers and planners, architects, urban planners, water and sanitation technicians, teaching staff, school boards, village education committees, local authorities and similar bodies.

3- Tier system of regulation suggested by WHO:

 

Uses of minimum water quality and quantity fixed by WHO in educational institutions:

 

1. Guideline for Quality check of water:

 

2. Guideline for water quantity:

 

 

 

References

·        Turbidity /www.lenntech.com/turbidity.

·        CGWB/ http://cgwb.gov.in/District_Profile/Delhi/North.pdf

·        Image Credit: CGWB, DU Beat.

·      Water world /www.waterworld.com/drinking-water/infrastructure-funding.

·        WHO/www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/wash_standards_school.pdf