‘Water comes once in 3 days’: Gurugram’s forgotten neighbourhoods

“Water comes once every three days, and today I couldn’t even wash clothes because none came,” says Anju Devi, a resident of Dundahera village. Her family of 11 shares an underground tank meant to last them through dry spells. Last month, they spent Rs 6,000 on tankers alone.

“We use it cautiously, like the saying goes, boond boond se ghada bhar jaata hai,” says Roshni Devi, 55, who runs a small shop near her home in Dundahera in Sector 21 and has watched the crisis worsen for two decades.

Dundahera is among the dozen “tail-end areas” in Gurugram – localities at the far end of the city’s water network that bear the worst of every summer shortage. By the time water travels through the system to reach them, pressure has dropped and supply has thinned, so any citywide shortfall lands on them first. The list includes sectors 21, 22, 23, 54, 55, 57, 59, 63, 63A, 70, 95 and Dundahera village.

Newslaundry visited several of these localities and spoke to residents, RWA representatives, water pump operators and municipal staff.

How the water is supposed to reach Gurugram

Gurugram’s piped water originates at two treatment plants, Basai and Chandu Budhera, drawing raw water from the Gurgaon Water Supply Canal and the NCR Canal. Combined, they treat around 670 mega litres per day (MLD). From there, water moves through master pipelines – as wide as 1,200mm and 1,300mm, operated by the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) – into underground tanks (UGTs) scattered across neighbourhoods. From the UGTs, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) runs boosting stations that push water into local pipelines and into homes.

The gap between supply and demand is widening. A 2021 TERI assessment projected that by 2025, Gurugram’s population would reach roughly 4.3 million, pushing demand to 874.3 MLD – against treatment capacity that, even now, sits at 670 MLD. A fourth treatment unit at Chandu Budhera, meant to add 100 MLD, has missed three successive deadlines since June 2024. An RTI response from February 2026 suggested combined capacity still stands at 670 MLD.

Some of the demand is allegedly being met through tubewell water supplied through government pipelines.

Increased reliance on tubewells?

Several operators described tubewells as the backstop whenever canal-fed GMDA supply falls short. 

A pump operator at the Dundahera boosting station – which serves Surya Vihar, Dundahera village and Chippi colony from a 60-lakh-litre reservoir – says low incoming pressure means he can usually supply only one of the three areas in a day. 

At the Sushant Lok 3 booster in Sector 57, with a 63-lakh-litre capacity, the operator claimed the flow meter tracking GMDA supply has been broken for two years, and that the station draws supplementary water from a tubewell. A second operator at the F and G blocks of Sushant Lok 2 claimed around 7–10 lakh litres arrived through the pipeline daily, with tubewells covering the rest.

At the Sector 55 booster, an operator pointed to power cuts as the constraint, saying demand of about 11.5 lakh litres per cycle is met with barely 4 lakh litres from GMDA, with tubewells bridging the rest. He claimed only about 60 of every 100 households get water in summer. 

At Sector 56, an operator claimed tubewells run 15–16 hours at a stretch to compensate.

At the Sector 22B booster, the operator said GMDA supply doesn’t suffice and that he runs a tubewell from 6 am to 3 pm to fill the tank, with low pressure worsening the problem in summer. 

At the Sector 21 booster, an underground tank cleaning had temporarily halted supply.

A 2023 Tribune report had highlighted a large gap in the city’s distribution backbone.

Even tubewells don’t last

At Surya Vihar, RWA president Rajesh Gera said the society of 600 families gets around 2 lakh litres a day against a requirement of about 6 lakh – and that demand at the time the builder applied for connections in 1990 was already 5.75 lakh litres. The society’s own tubewell, he said, no longer works because groundwater has dropped too low for the submersible to function, leaving residents dependent on tankers costing Rs 50,000 to 1 lakh a day.

These accounts sit against a wider backdrop: Gurugram Urban’s groundwater extraction stage, per the Central Ground Water Board’s 2024 assessment, stands at 326.52 percent – more than three times the rate at which it’s being naturally replenished. 

The Central Ground Water Authority first declared Gurugram a “dark zone” in 2008; in the years since, the water table has dropped 82 percent. In February 2026, the National Green Tribunal pulled up Haryana authorities over illegal groundwater extraction in the city and ordered stricter enforcement against unauthorised tubewells, along with mandatory rainwater harvesting. A recent CGWA report places Haryana’s over-exploited groundwater units at 61.54 percent, behind only Punjab’s 75.16 percent and ahead of Delhi’s 41.18 percent.

The tanker economy

For many residents, the formal system is a backdrop to a parallel one.

“We didn’t get water for five to six days a week through April and May. I had to call a tanker twice a week, at Rs 800 for 5,000 litres,” said Ritu Naresh, who lives in Sushant Lok Phase 2’s A1 Block.

Rupali Verma, of Sushant Lok 2’s D Block in Sector 56, said she needed a tanker once in May and three times in April, paying Rs 1,500 for just 1,000 litres on one occasion. “We get water only once in four days. One tanker lasts only 2–3 days. There is nothing without water – you need it to wash clothes, cook, and clean,” said Roshni Devi of Dundahera, adding that tanker rates climb in summer from around Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 for 5,000 litres, just as demand peaks.

Prices vary by source. The Sushant Lok 2 RWA’s joint secretary said underground-tank deliveries run Rs 700–1,000 for 4,000 litres, while overhead-tank deliveries cost Rs 1,500–2,000. 

In blocks like B1, residents say they need three tankers a week for basic needs – roughly Rs 8,400–13,000 a month at the lower end, or Rs 18,000–26,000 for those relying on overhead-tank delivery. 

A delayed solution

In 2019, GMDA approved the Central Integrated Water Management System (CIWMS), piloted in 2020 on the Basai-Dundahera 1,200mm pipeline with the aim of ensuring tail-end sectors get adequate summer supply. The pilot covered 39 underground tanks across Palam Vihar, sectors 21 and 22, Suncity, Caterpuri, Electronic City and Dundahera, using flow meters, pressure sensors and control valves feeding real-time data to GMDA’s command centre.

Phase 2 received financial clearance in 2024, covering the 1,300mm pipeline from WTP Basai through Sector 16 onward to sectors 17 through 45. 

However, an RTI response shows the project remains mid-implementation: of 251 underground tanks slated for integration, only 112 are complete. The project, costing Rs 16.39 crore including five years of maintenance, is now slated for completion by January next year.

Asked about water demand in these sectors, an MCG engineer said that in the absence of a population census, the department has no way of knowing exact demand – a problem compounded by an uncounted “floating” population of temporary residents. Asked how supply is managed without demand data, the engineer said MCG simply distributes whatever volume GMDA supplies.

Newslaundry sent questionnaires to GMDA CEO PC Meena and Public Communication Officer Neha Sharma. Questions were also mailed to MCG Commissioner Pradeep Dahiya, Additional Commissioners Yash Jaluka and Ankita Choudhary and the agency’s PRO. This report will be updated if a response is received.

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