LOCAL SOLUTIONS

The solution to Sangam Vihar's water supply, sanitation and stormwater problems could lie in decentralised management, suggests a Centre for Science and Environment survey in the unplanned settlement

- UMRA ANEES AND DEPINDER KAPUR

WATER SCARCITY is a way of life for the more than one million residents of Sangam Vihar in Delhi. Located in the national capital's Southeast district, Sangam Vihar is one of the most densely populated unauthorized settlements in the city. Once or twice a week, water tankers can be seen navigating the lanes of the 13 blocks that comprise the settlement. One such tanker arrives in block L, the largest block of Sangam Vihar, and stops outside a lane so narrow that only bicycles can go through it. As the tanker waits, residents emerge with large buckets and drums in hand. Women, some followed by their children, walk up to 1 km to the tanker to fill water for their families’ drinking and domestic needs. They usually make multiple trips to collect enough water until the next time the tanker arrives. Only a few pockets of Sangam Vihar, mostly in blocks adjacent to the MehrauliBadarpur Road, get water every other day through a Delhi Jal Board (djb) pipeline from the Sonia Vihar water treatment plant.

Sangam Vihar is a stark example of the increasing number of unplanned and informal settlements in the Global South. A 2022 report by the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), says that in 2020 roughly half the urban population in sub-Saharan Africa and Central and South Asia lived in informal settlements. Most lack basic water and sanitation.

The situation is exacerbated with the impacts of climate change. For instance, during the 2023 monsoon season, when Delhi received unprecedented rainfall, residents of Sangam Vihar reported accumulation of stormwater in the narrower inner streets reaching up to their knees. Water also entered houses built below the street level and led to skin infections.

Scramble for supplies

Sangam Vihar's million-plus population depends on the Delhi Jal Board pipeline in Sonia Vihar, tankers, borewells and RO drinking water