Meet Delhi's H2O smugglers

The booty ends up with whoever can afford it.

As the national capital struggles to slake its thirst under the blazing sun, water smugglers are siphoning off Delhi Jal Board supplies to black-market one of humanity's most vital needs.

An India Today investigation has found the city, the world's second-biggest after Tokyo, is succumbing rapidly to mafias diverting H2O shipments to wealthy clients -- malls, hotels and swimming pools.

The illegal trade is flourishing right on DJB properties, the probe found, more so when the crisis deepens during summer.

Remember, an estimated 56 per cent of Delhi's aquifers are overexploited. At locations in South and South-West Delhi, water has dipped 20 to 30 metres below the ground level, according to a Delhi government survey. The liquid is not fit for human consumption, the study noted.

Official data suggest Delhi is facing a crippling shortage of 300 million gallons of drinking water every day, with the demand soaring to 1,200 mgd this summer.

In a separate report, the NITI Aayog has warned that 21 cities, including the national capital, will run out of groundwater by 2020, affecting 100 million people.

Earlier, India Today's Special Investigation Team showed how a well-oiled mafia is sipping endangered groundwater for illicit profits.

In mid-June, the SIT's #OperationWaterMafia Part 1 caught operatives running illegal water plants, disgorging the scarce resource from borewells for sale on the black market.

India Today's #OperationWaterMafia Part 2 has unearthed the other side of the mushrooming racket.

The latest investigation found out how touts, middlemen and drivers of DJB water tankers are skimming off the supplies originally destined to slums and unauthorised neighbourhoods with no piped connections.

On the sprawling compound of the DJB's executive engineer office in an Okhla neighbourhood, Surendra sat comfortably on a motorbike parked under a tree.

He was no local resident visiting the facility over a problem.

When India Today's reporters, posing as private water suppliers, investigated him, Surendra came across as a shrewd broker negotiating a deal for a tankerload of shipment.

For him, this meant quick money.

"You tell me how much will you pay?" he asked the journalists. "I can send the vehicle (filled tanker)."

"How many litres?" probed one of the reporters.

"Any quantity of your choice," Surendra offered.

He guaranteed that the water he provides is sourced directly from DJB stations.

"Hope the water will be clean and filled up from here," the reporter asked.

"The water will be filled up from here of course. From here," he replied, facing a large hall dealing with water issues.

Surendra promised deliveries during office hours. "I can very well send it (the tanker) daytime. You tell me how much you will pay and I'll let the driver know," he demanded.

Surendra then quoted a price of Rs 700 for a big water tanker.

Touts at DJB facilities are not the only culprits choking supplies for ordinary residents.

India Today's investigation found water trucks can be diverted midway to anyone willing to pay.

Pankaj, a tanker driver in the Okhla neighbourhood, solicited Rs 600 for emptying the consignment into a swimming pool.

"The vehicle will cost Rs 600 for 2,500-3,000 litres," he said. "The water is clean. I just have to see how big the swimming pool is, how much quantity it needs."

Private sharks roam brazenly around DJB centres, the investigation observed.

Operatives assign their truck drivers to pump water from the utilities.

"We stand in the queue with our numbers," a driver of a private supplier told India Today's SIT. "We'll have a 12-wheeled truck pumped in."

"Is it from the Jal Board?" the reporter asked.

"Yes," he replied.

Also read: Delhi: City thirsts and tanker mafia rules as politicians play blame game

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