No Water in the Taps in Your Delhi Flat? Work Down the Chain

Ask this first: how much of the flat has no water?

Two minutes of checking narrows the whole problem down. Go around and open every tap, hot and cold.

• One tap only. The problem is at that tap or the short pipe feeding it. Almost always a clogged aerator or a closed isolation valve — both free to fix, and covered further down.
• Only the hot taps. That is the geyser or its inlet valve, not the flat’s supply. Check the small valve on the cold pipe feeding the geyser is fully open.
• One bathroom or the kitchen only. A branch valve for that area is closed, or that branch line is blocked.
• The whole flat, all taps. You are looking at the tank, the pump, the main valve or the building supply. Keep going.
• The whole building. Not your problem to solve. Talk to the guard, the RWA or the maintenance office — supply failure, a pump fault, a tanker that did not arrive, or scheduled work.

Also ask a neighbour on your floor. If they have water and you do not, the fault is inside your flat or in your own tank feed. If nobody has water, it is the building.

Whole flat dry: is there water in the tank?

This is the commonest answer in Delhi, and it is not a fault at all — the tank is simply empty.

Check the supply hours first. Most of Delhi and NCR gets water for a limited window, morning and evening. If the underground tank did not fill during that window — low pressure in the main, a missed tanker, a closed inlet valve, a supply cut — there is nothing for the pump to lift, and your overhead tank runs dry by afternoon. Ask the guard or a neighbour whether the supply came today.

Then look in the overhead tank, if you can reach it safely. In an independent house or a low-rise that is a terrace tank. Lift the lid and look.

• Tank empty, pump has been running. The pump is running dry, which damages it. Switch the pump off now. Either the underground tank is empty or the pump is not actually lifting water — see the next section.
• Tank empty, pump was not switched on. Fill it and the problem is solved. If this keeps happening, the float valve or automatic level controller may have failed.
• Tank has water but the taps are dry. The outlet valve at the tank is closed or blocked, the outlet is choked with sediment, or there is an air lock in the down pipe. This is where a plumber becomes useful.
• Tank full and overflowing while taps are dry. The float valve has stuck open and the outlet is blocked. Turn off the inlet, because you are wasting a tank of water.

Never climb onto a wet terrace parapet or lean into a tank to check. If you cannot see in from a safe position, do not. Our water supply and tank tips cover keeping the tank side of this working properly.

Is the pump the problem?

If the underground tank has water and the overhead tank does not, the pump is not moving it. Check these in order, and stop at anything that needs opening the pump.

• Is there power at the pump? Check the MCB for the pump circuit and the switch. A tripped breaker is a common and instant answer — but if it trips again as soon as you reset it, leave it off and get an electrician. Repeatedly resetting a breaker that keeps tripping is not safe.
• Does the pump hum without pumping? That usually means it is jammed, has lost its prime, or has a failed starting capacitor. It is a pump repair, and running it in that state damages it further.
• Does it run normally but deliver nothing? Loss of prime, an air leak on the suction side, a blocked foot valve or an empty underground tank. Many pumps need priming — filling the casing with water — before they will draw again.
• Is the automatic controller stuck? Many Delhi buildings use a level controller that starts the pump when the overhead tank drops. If the sensor or float has failed, the pump never starts. Try running it on manual to see if it works at all.
• Is it a shared building pump? Then it is a maintenance matter. Report it rather than touching it.

Our water pump not working guide goes through this in detail, including what is safe to check yourself and what is not.

Valves, air locks and blocked filters

If there is water in the tank and the pump is fine, the problem is between the tank and your tap.

A closed valve. More common than people expect, especially after any recent work in the flat or the building. Somebody closed a valve to do a job and did not fully reopen it. Find and check each of these: the main valve where the supply enters your flat, the branch valves for each bathroom and the kitchen, the small isolation valves under each basin and behind the WC, and the geyser inlet valve. Turn each fully open, then close and open once — a valve that has sat untouched for years can seize part-open, and working it loosens it.

An air lock. A pocket of trapped air in the pipe stops the water behind it moving. This is very common in Delhi flats after the supply has been off, after tank cleaning, or after the pump has run dry, and it is easy to recognise: the tap spits, hisses and coughs out bursts of air and water instead of a steady flow, or the top-floor fittings are dry while lower ones work. What usually clears it: open the lowest tap in the flat fully and let it run, which lets the weight of the water push the air out; open all the taps at once for a minute and close them from the lowest upwards; and where a hot and cold mixer exists, connecting a hose between a working tap and the airlocked one to push water backwards is a plumber’s standard trick. If none of that works, the pipe run may need bleeding at a high point.

A clogged aerator or filter. If one tap is weak or dry and the rest are fine, unscrew the mesh at the tip of the spout. In Delhi it packs solid with scale and grit, especially after the supply has been restored following work on the line, when a slug of rust and sediment travels down the pipes. Soak the mesh in white vinegar, rinse and refit. Do the same for the inlet filters on the washing machine and the WC flush valve.

Sediment in the line after tank cleaning. Silt stirred up in a tank travels down and blocks the outlet or the first fittings it reaches. Running the taps hard for a while — ideally the bath or an outside tap with no aerator — flushes it through.

If the flow is present but weak rather than absent, our low water pressure guide is the better page.

When it is a real plumbing fault, and when to call

Sometimes it genuinely is the pipework, and a few signs point there directly.

• Water suddenly stopped and there is a damp patch or a running sound in a wall. A burst or badly leaking concealed line. Shut the main valve to the flat immediately and call someone — this is the one situation on this page that is urgent, because the water is going somewhere, usually into your slab or a neighbour’s ceiling.
• Supply stopped right after drilling, hanging a mirror, or renovation work. A concealed pipe has very likely been hit. Same response: shut the main valve.
• Rusty or discoloured water and then nothing, in an older building with metal pipes. Corrosion scale can choke an old line almost completely.
• Repeated air locks in the same fitting after every supply interruption, which usually means the pipe run has a high point that traps air and needs correcting.
• One area of the flat has never had good supply since it was built or renovated. That is a design problem in the pipe run, not a blockage.

Before anyone comes, be ready to say: which taps are dry, whether neighbours have water, whether the overhead tank has water in it, whether the pump runs, and whether anything spits air. That description is most of the diagnosis and it prevents a wasted visit. Our plumber charges guide covers what drives the cost of this work, and the emergency plumber guide covers what changes if you have a burst line and cannot wait.