Acute water shortage plagues Shimla

Bhanu P Lohumi

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 27

Acute water shortage has gripped Shimla, exposing the claims of the Shimla Municipal Corporation to ensure water supply on alternate days. Several areas are not getting water even on the third or the fourth day and the supply is coming in trickles in many parts of the town.

Local BJP workers led by MLA Suresh Bhardwaj today held a demonstration. They beat empty vessels to draw the attention of the government and the SMC towards the water problem.

Bhardwaj said lack of coordination and mismanagement were responsible for the shortage of water. He said it was a cause of concern that Shimla was facing water shortage in spite of adequate rain and snowfall in the catchment areas during the winter. The MLA said the water supply was irregular, inadequate, erratic and immediate steps needed be taken to solve the problem.

Water shortage during the summer due to drying of natural sources and an increase in the tourist inflow was a normal feature, but this time the problem has become acute and the people are worried, especially in view of the Met Department forecast of harsh summer this year.

After the suspension of water supply from the Ashwani Khud, the availability of water reduced by 7 to 8 MLD and efforts of the SMC to augment the supply by changing the pipelines, plugging leakages and metering did not yield desired results.

The water supply was hit due to interruption in the power supply from January 6 to 18 and residents of Bhattakufar, Gahan and Neridhar areas were affected. “An estimate of Rs 23,54,700 has been approved for laying separate pipelines for these areas,” sources said.

“About 2,000-m pipeline of the Giri water supply scheme is being replaced while the process to implement the Kol Dam water supply scheme is in progress,” the sources added. They said the total requirement of water for the town was 42 MDL, but after the suspension of supply from the Ashwani Khud, the availability of water had reduced.