News: GMDA starts pilot project to ensure equal distribution of water-14-03-2021
GMDA starts pilot project to ensure equal distribution of water
The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority(GMDA) has initiated a pilot project to ensure equal distribution of water to all houses along a stretch between Basai and Dwarka Expressway. According to GMDA officials, areas such as Sirhaul, Gandhi Nagar, parts of Iffco and Huda colonies, Civil Lines, Shivaji Nagar, among others would be covered under this project.
Officials said that this measure will not only conserve water but will also ensure that the authority gets the amount due for the water being supplied to residents. “There are several underground water tanks between Basai and Dwarka Expressway. Presently, while some tanks get more water, residents towards the end of the blocks get less water. As such, we are developing a system in which there will be flow control walls, which are electronically controlled and programmed. This would ensure equal quantity of water to all residents,” said a senior GMDA official privy to the matter, who did not wish to be named. As work for the pilot project continues, the official could not give an estimated timeline as to when the system would become fully operational.
The project is a part of a centralised integrated water management system, which is being developed by the Smart City division of GMDA and will cover around 40 underground tanks, which provide water to all residential housing societies, individual houses and hotels.
With the centralised system, the GMDA will have a larger degree of control over the entire distribution and supply chain from a single location through the Integrated Command and Control Centre (ICCC).
At present, Gurugram’s water comes from the water channels in NCR and the Yamuna channel. This raw water is carried to the water treatment plants (WTPs) at Basai and Chandu Budhera, which have a daily operational capacity of 270MLD (million litres per day) and 300MLD respectively. There are also two boosting stations in sectors 16 and 51 to help overcome the difficulty of transporting water to the eastern parts of the city, which is on a higher ground than the two WTPs.
The official further said electrical sensors have been placed on the water pipelines, which will help in ensuring equal distribution of water. The project will also focus on plugging the leakages in the pipelines to arrest wastage of water due to overflow and unauthorised water connections.
As per official records, flow meters, level sensors, flow control devices and other field equipment will be tentatively installed at over 300 locations for the centralised water management system.
Earlier in 2019, the GMDA also developed a network of CCTV cameras and sensors for transmitting real-time visual feeds and data to a dashboard dedicated to water supply at the command centre in order to check on possible water theft.
