Contaminated Chair water scheme closed

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 25

The Irrigation and Public Health (IPH) Department has shut down the Chair water scheme. Its samples tested by the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, have shown the presence of Hepatitis E virus. The scheme supplies water to the Retreat Building in Chharabra, the official summer residence of the President.

The department received the report on March 19 and it immediately stopped the supply. But this has deepened the crisis in Kufri, Chharabra and parts of Dhalli.

There is no sewage plant in the vicinity of the Chairh water source, still its samples have failed the purity test.

“We have collected fresh water samples and have sent those to the NIV again,” said Executive Engineer, IPH, Dhanraj.

The scheme, built by the British in 1914, has the capacity of supplying 2.19 MLD water.

The department has already shut down the Ashwani Khud water scheme. It has also stopped the supply from the traditional water schemes in Tutu, Malyana and Brockhurst that used to cater to more than 1,600 households in the merged areas of Malyana, Pateog, New Shimla, Aunji, Mehli, Tutu and Taradevi.

Three IPH engineers, the contractor and the supervisor of the sewage treatment plants are still behind bars for the jaundice outbreak.

“The Shimla Municipal Corporation is rationing the water supply through tankers and from its sources, but residents have been demanding regular water connections from the civic body,” said Satyavan Pundir, secretary of the Shimla Nagrik Sabha.

IPH engineers said they had linked the Chair water supply line with the Mashobra pipeline supplying water to the residence of the President. “We are supplying water to Kufri from a local rural scheme and have pressed into service water tankers to solve the problem. We will restore the Chair scheme, once the NIV report is out,” said Dhanraj.