Dry taps and black water plague residents in Zakhira and Sultanpuri
Residents in the Delhi neighborhoods of Amar Park in Zakhira and W Block in Sultanpuri are facing severe water shortages and contaminated supplies, leaving households with dry taps or foul-smelling, dark water. The ongoing crisis has forced local families to rely on erratic water tanker deliveries to meet their daily needs.
In Amar Park, located in Northwest Delhi, rows of plastic drums and buckets have become a common sight lining the roadside. Residents there wait daily for Delhi Jal Board (DJB) tankers to arrive. The situation is similarly critical a few kilometers away in West Delhi’s Sultanpuri, where the water supply has been heavily disrupted.
According to Iqbal Chaudhary, a 30-year-old resident of W Block in Sultanpuri, the local pipeline supply has been completely stopped for nearly two years. Chaudhary noted that approximately 500 people in the area, including visitors to a nearby mosque, depend on this supply.
Currently, the neighborhood receives only one or two tankers per week. Chaudhary stated that this is highly insufficient for the population, noting that residents cannot even get five liters of water per person.
In addition to the shortage, residents raised serious concerns about the quality of the water that occasionally reaches their homes. Chaudhary reported that taps have been dry for six months, and when water does flow, it is highly contaminated, black, and smells like sewage. Other Sultanpuri residents echoed these concerns, stating that local water issues have been neglected.
The affected localities fall primarily under the supply zone of the Chandrawal Water Treatment Plant, which serves Central-West Delhi, and also receive support from the Wazirabad network. DJB officials attributed the widespread disruptions to reduced production at both the Wazirabad and Chandrawal plants.
According to officials, these facilities have been operating below capacity due to low raw water levels in the Yamuna River. This shortfall has decreased the overall water supply across multiple Delhi neighborhoods, leading to intermittent pressure and dry taps.
In response to the complaints regarding water quality, DJB officials stated that they have collected water samples from the affected locality and sent them for laboratory testing.
