27% of govt schools without DJB water: NGO

Times of India: New Delhi: Friday, 27 February 2015.

Over a quarter of Delhi's government schools are functioning without a water connection. Of the 798 that bothered to respond to a query filed under RTI by a Delhi NGO, 220—27.5%—reported they don't have a Delhi Jal Board connection.

"We work in the northeast district (there are 13 school districts in Delhi) and know of schools that have no water supply. We wanted to know what the situation is in other parts of Delhi," says Rajiv Kumar who runs Pardarshita in New Seemapuri. Kumar believes that a similar RTI application filed in 2014 resulted in one school in the area getting connected.

As per data received by the NGO, the maximum number of schools without connections is in the northeast district—50. In southwest B, there are 41 schools and in south, 30. However, the count in these districts may be higher simply because they have bothered to furnish complete lists. There are only 24 schools in northwest B that don't have DJB connections as per the RTI responses but the actual number may be higher—there are several schools that haven't replied. It's the same situation with southeast 17 have declared they're without water connections but over 40 haven't responded.

"Absence of a DJB connection does not mean there's no water," clarifies Padmini Singla, director, education. "In those cases, we give permission for bore-wells." "Schools got bore-wells some time ago," agrees Ajay Vir Yadav, general secretary of Government School Teachers' Association. "If the school doesn't have a RO system or there's no maintenance, that's pure negligence. However, bore-wells don't function too well in certain parts of town."

On paper, there are provisions. "Most schools will tell you they use groundwater," says Kumar. "But in reality you'll find that in some schools there's no safe drinking water. One principal tells me she calls the tanker but it comes three days late. There are also cases where the filtration systems aren't cleaned regularly." He also maintains that the list of schools without connections includes both old and new schools.