India Focus: Don't wash your hands of water supply

The story that I am about to tell you has often been repeated in the lives of many Indians. I have a friend who is a young achiever.

She and her husband denied themselves a lot of luxuries in life in order to be able to buy a house which they could call their own. In the end they were able to buy a house in South Delhi.

Everyone was amazed that they could actually afford to pay the price for their new house in South Delhi. We wished them luck and happiness in their new house. They were also understandably proud of their achievement and on top of the world, but their happiness was short-lived.

What their broker did not tell them before selling the house was the problem of an acute water shortage in the vicinity. Apart from the shortage, the water was unpotable.

In the end my friend landed up spending a lot of money in installing a booster pump and water purification system. So what I am trying to tell you here is that before you buy your dream house and sign the cheque, do a research on the water situation in that area.

Ask your broker specific questions and even the residents of that area about the water supply. Find out the source of water whether it is supplied by the municipality or from an underground source. Is it adequate? Is the water fit for drinking and other household usages? And lastly is the pressure fine?

I know that sounds strange to you. You must be wondering why should we ask, should not the water supply throughout the city be the same, but alas it is never so.

Like the vagaries of nature the vagaries of the Delhi Jal Board can never be understood. Some privileged colonies receive more water than others. In some colonies the pressure is adequate to lift water to overhead tanks while in other localities people have to get up to fill water at unearthly hours and in some places they even have to send for DJB water tanks to fulfill their requirements.

Moreover, also try to find out if the area is dependent on underground water. Because if it is so then it is not good news.

Also underground water tends to have minerals (a high level of magnesium and calcium salts) which make it hard. Hard water requires excess soap for lathering. And hard water causes scaling in pipes.

Even though these days there are devices to turn hard water into soft water, the units are available at reasonably higher prices (Rs20,000-Rs50,000). So try to avoid buying a house in such an area.

So once you find a house in a area where the water is given by the good old DJB you have to find out the next best thing. How's the water pressure and its flow. You don't want to spend your entire time sitting in front of the tap waiting for the trickle to grudgingly fill your bucket do you!

Normally the pressure of water in most houses is a factor of gravitational pull. So if the height of the overhead tank form the tap is wide (as in the case of a ground floor flat), water pressure will be high.

The opposite will be the case for a flat on the topmost floor where the distance from the tank will be as little as 8-10 metres.

Last but not least get the water of the area analysed for impurities. For this, you could approach a laboratory, such as FRAC - run by FICCI (located at Mandi House).

The Sriram Lab (in North Campus of Delhi University) also conducts such analysis. These laboratories offer a range of testing packages costing between Rs1,000-10,000 depending on the range of tests you want to get done.

So it is better to be water savvy while buying your dream house than go to office without a bath in the hot summer months just because you did not do a little study on the water situation in your area before sinking your money in the house.
The choice is yours, think about it.

R. Dyes is a journalist based in New Delhi.