Dry days at DU

South campus colleges reeling under water scarcity for the past three days. Students claim administration has been unsympathetic

The scorching summers are here and things are only getting worse every day. But students at Delhi University's south campus colleges are the worst hit. Apart from the rising mercury, they are also having to deal with the problem of water scarcity. There is no water to drink; even the restroom taps are running dry, resulting in an uncomfortable situation.


What to do? Ram Lal Anand and Motilal Nehru are two of the
affected colleges

The colleges that are bearing the brunt include Motilal Nehru College, Ram Lal Anand (RLA) College, Venkateshwara College and Atma Ram Sanatan Dharm (ARSD) College. Apart from these, Lady Sri Ram (LSR) College and Maitreyi College have faced similar problems intermittently since the summer season started.

Dry season
A number of students gathered to complain about the issue to the office of the director, south campus recently. Annoyed students claim that it has been more than three days since the colleges have received a single drop of water. Most students say that there is no option for them but to buy bottled water from the cafeteria.

Bhagat Singh, president of the students' union of Motilal Nehru College (morning) is one of those who has been raising the issue with the administration. "We went with a complaint to the college authorities several times on the unavailability of water in the college, but nothing was done about it. The scarcity has become severe now. There is no drinking water and the water coolers have run dry," he told MiD DAY.

Student leaders claim they have written a number of complaints to the dean of south campus, apprising him of the issue, but there has been no response from the office. "We have submitted written applications to the dean's office, but they have not replied to even a single letter. It is just that the authorities do not take the matter seriously as their offices are provided with mineral water," said Manish Chandela, another student of Motilal Nehru College.

Brisk business
At RLA College, students say the cafeterias are doing good business these days as students buy unlimited amount of packaged drinking water, juices and aerated drinks throughout the day. Ragini Mehta, a student of RLA College said, "There is no water to drink, but we are managing with water bottles from the cafeteria. But for girls, there is a problem as there is no water in the restrooms. For the past few days we have been using the loos of the restaurants near the college," she said.

Kesang Thakur, a student of LSR College said: "Every summer there is a water problem. It has come back a few days ago." The deputy proctor of south campus Manoj Arora said there is a water problem in a few colleges, which needs to be fixed. "I have received complaints from the students of no drinking water in certain colleges. We are working on the issue and hope to resolve the matter as soon as possible. We have been speaking to the Delhi Jal Board and they have assured us of fixing the problem in a day or two."

However, Prof Umesh Rai, director of south campus was not aware of the issue. "As of now there is no intimation of such a matter. But as I have now been informed, I will speak about the water issue to the respective principals of the colleges," he told MiD DAY.u00a0

Dr P Sengupta, acting principal, Motilal Nehru College seemed uninterested about the issue. "I don't know about any such water scarcity. The students should come to me if they are facing a problem," he said.u00a0"It was only last year that we upgraded our water system. Till now, I don't think there has been a shortage of water. I have not received any complaint as of yet," said Dr Rajesh Mohan, principal, ARSD College.u00a0u00a0

Issue on Facebook
The problem of acute shortage of water in south campus has flooded social networking sites like Facebook. A full page dedicated to the problem of no water and salty water available has been created by college students. Some of the posts read:

"Today we went to dean student welfare for complaining about the poor water supply. He took our application but added, "Sab jagah ek hi paani ata hai....kya tumhe koi health problem to nahi hai (the quality of water is same everywhere. You might have a health problem)." So it is in our hands. Do we want the same hard water or RO purified water? Stand up and complain," said Shekhar Jain.u00a0

"After drinking the water at south campus my throat got infected. Due to this I could not go for my recordings at a studio and the music director hired another singer. This is very unfortunate and it happened just because of this bad water. Do something for it," said
Sahil Anchal.

Water crisis in south Delhi
Earlier this month, the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) said it would award management contracts to operators to ensure continuous water supply in parts of south Delhi on an experimental basis. "The reason we chose the two zones (in south Delhi) is that they are among the worst affected in the capital and fall at the tail end of the transmission and distribution system," said Rakesh Mohan, CEO of DJB. The plan, to be executed under the aegis of its recently announced Project 24/7, will ensure that continuous water supply is achieved within a period of six years in the two chosen zones - South II and South III. While the South II zone extends from Mehrauli to Badarpur, South III extends from Okhla to Green Park. Under these zones will come Lajpat Nagar, Defence Colony, Govindpuri, South extension parts I and II, Sadiq Nagar, Greater Kailash I and II, parts of Saket, Malviya Nagar, Kalkaji, KailashColony, Maharani Bagh, Friends Colony, Okhla, Dakshinpuri, Safdarjung Development Area, Green Park, Indian Institute of Technology, Jia Sarai, C.R. Park, Hauz Khas, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Asian Games Village, Panchsheel, Madangir and other adjoining areas."The contractors will be chosen by a universal tender bidding process and should be in place by Dec 31," Mohan told reporters. The project, which will begin in December, is expected to cost around Rs.360 million ($8.26 million) per zone annually with a gradual increase in supply of water that should lead to a continuous flow in six years, he said.