Technical description

To demonstrate to State and City authorities, administrators, water service suppliers and politicians that conversion from intermittent to continuous water supplies is achievable, and illustrate the strategy to this end.

Details

Delhi is a mega city of 14 million population which operates an intermittent water supply regime. Halcrow has investigated various strategies for remediation of the water supply system to provide continuous supplies.

Delhi has a disparity in bulk supplies in different areas with the north and west of the city being resource-rich compared to the south and east. Four pilot areas were identified within Delhi – Green Park, Trilokpuri, Dakshinpuri and Rohimi for detailed system diagnostics.

These areas were geographically and demographically spread across the Delhi water supply system. These detailed studies highlighted the high levels of non revenue water within Delhi and the variable rates of water usage.

Halcrow has also carried out strategic analysis of the Delhi transmission system looking at the system input volume and the carrying capacity for the transmission system and identifying whether further rationalisation would be required.

Halcrow investigated the possibilities of utilising the existing over head tanks and/or underground tanks and booster stations to enable the provision of a continuous supply.

An EPANET hydraulic model of the transmission system was built to analyse the system. This showed that if continuous supplies were unrestricted there would be areas where transmission system duplication would be required. However if continuous managed supplies were introduced to Delhi then the model indicated that no extra reinforcement of the transmission system would be required.

This model also indicated that with the managed supplies there would be sufficient capacity within the transmission system to supply the water deficient area of Delhi. With the implementation of continuous supplies, demand management techniques should also be implemented.

The overall strategy noted that continuous water supply in Delhi is feasible, and outlined the road map to progress the project. To illustrate this a workshop was held in Hyderabad for politicians, administrators and engineers.