Sonia urges govts, society to make efforts to preserve water

New Delhi, Sep 18 (UNI) Describing water as the very basis of development of a nation, Congress president Sonia Gandhi today urged various state governments in the country to make joint efforts with the public to peserve this precious resource.

''Water, along with power and roads, form the basis of development of a nation. Every drop of water is precious and I urge all the state governments as well as the Centre to raise awareness among the public of the need for water conservation,'' Ms Gandhi said after dedicating to the people of Delhi the 140 MGD Sonia Vihar Water Treatment Plan, set up at a cost of nearly Rs 4000 Crore, to meet Delhi's water shortage Describing the operationalisation of the plant, the first state-of-the-art water treatment plant in the country, as a significant milestone in the direction of fulfulling the dream of meeting water shortage in the capital city, Ms Gandhi said,''I am sure that the water problems of a large part of Delhi will be solved with the operationalisation of the plant.'' An estimated 40 lakh people of Delhi stand to benefit from the additional water supply of 140 MGD from the Sonia Vihar plant.

The setting up of the plant will not only help in better water supply coverage and distribution for South and East Delhi but would also gradually result in improved supplies in other areas in the city through displacement.

Ms Gandhi said that the plant would also help in increase in the ground level situation in Delhi, which had gone down alarmingly in the last few years due to water shortage in the capital.

''It is a result of painstaking efforts by the Delhi Government and the DJB who have toiled day and night to prepare pipelines for bringing the water to people of Delhi in such a short time,'' she said while addressing a huge gathering, comprising of ministers in the Delhi cabinet, MLAs, Municipal councillors and members of the general public.

Earlier, addressing the gathering, Delhi chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said following the commissioning of the plant, a total of 140 MGD of additional water would be available to Delhi, of which 90 MGD would be available to South Delhi areas while an additional 40 MGD would be received by people of East Delhi.

''An additional feature of the plant is the minimum use of chemicals in the treatment with the result that the water that people receive would be clear. Further, as against a high percentage of leakages in the existing distribution networks, the leakages in the water distributed from the Sonia Vihar WTP would be just 1.5 per cent which, in turn, would considerably reduce maintenance cost of the plant,''Ms Dikshit said.

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