Policy Briefs & Reports

The Delhi Jal Board (DJB): Seeing beyond the Planned

Shahana Sheikh, Sonal Sharma, Subhadra Banda

Cities of Delhi, Centre for Policy Research

April 30, 2015

Delhi’s jhuggi jhopri clusters (JJCs), resettlement colonies, and unauthorised colonies are largely without piped water supply. In its absence, residents of these and other informal settlements—estimated to house threequarters of Delhi’s residents1 —have come to rely on a patchwork of alternative water sources, most important among them water tankers and groundwater tubewells. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB), the state government institution responsible for water supply in the majority of the city, has a complicated relationship with these two arrangements, which each represent a combination of sanctioned and informal elements. This report recounts the practical functioning of both systems and explores in detail the role that the DJB has played in their evolution. We find that, although the DJB has made efforts to improve its administration of water tankers and tubewells, the reality on the ground remains one of limited supply and inequitable distribution.

Suggested Citation: Shahana Sheikh, Sonal Sharma, and Subhadra Banda, ‘The Delhi Jal Board: Seeing beyond the Planned’. A report of the Cities of Delhi project, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi (April 2015).