DJB plans to upgrade its staff quarters into ‘smart’ colonies

Taking a cue from the union government’s smart cities mission, the Delhi Jal Board now plans to upgrade its staff quarters and colonies into ‘smart’ ones with features such as zero-liquid discharge, sewage treatment facilities to recycle waste water and solar panels for power supply.

The water utility has already engaged an agency to do a feasibility study and prepare a detailed project report.

“We have already engaged an agency, which is also associated with the Centre’s smart cities mission, to prepare a detailed project report. If the project report says it is feasible, then we would start a pilot project in one of the DJB quarters. The DJB has around 7-8 such staff quarters,” said Dinesh Mohaniya, vice-chairman of Delhi Jal Board.

The DPR report would suggest whether features such as micro STPs could be installed to treat and recycle waste water and reuse them to water the gardens. This would ensure zero liquid discharge.

“A similar STP is operational at the DJB headquarters where waste water is treated and used to irrigate gardens and trees inside the premises at Jhandewalan. There could be two separate pipelines – one from the kitchen and another from toilet — to segregate water before they could be treated and reused,” Mohaniya said.

While the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had earlier directed all educational institutions in the national capital to install rainwater harvesting (RWH) systems in their premises, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had recently announced a few days ago that the cabinet had directed rainwater harvesting to be made mandatory for all government buildings.

“Rainwater harvesting would also be an important part of the project in the colonies. This would help to recharge the ground water. Other features such as WiFi and roof top solar panels would also be installed,” Mohaniya added.