Shimla water supply improves

Kuldeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, October 12

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) today claimed to have stabilised the water supply not only to the capital city, but also to rural areas.

In the last few days, the Greater Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Circle (GSWSSC) has been able to pump, on an average, about 40 MLD water daily, out of which about 30 per cent still goes waste due to leakage in the supply lines that are being plugged to solve the water woes.

“Today, we pumped about 45 MLD water from five major water schemes and hope that the water supply system would continue to work in the same manner provided we get uninterrupted power supply at the peak pumping hours daily,” said Tikender Panwar, Deputy Mayor, Shimla. “We have not received any water complaints which means residents are getting adequate water supply,” he added.

“Still, leakage remains the biggest problem. We are plugging leakages on the 1-km long stretch of the main Giri lift drinking water scheme on a war-footing and about 80 per cent work is complete”, he added.

Though the city has about 29,000 water connections, the old pumping stations, rampant leakages in the pipeline and overflowing private tanks contribute to about 30 per cent water wastage.

The SMC and GSWSSC have intensified their campaign against private owners whose tanks overflow and pipes leak.

“We are plugging all leakages and repairing the old pumps. The water supply from the pumping depends upon the functioning of the old pumps,” said Dharmender Gill, Superintending Engineer, GSWSSC.

“The supply has improved post-monsoon as the presence of silt has diminished drastically, but the system remains unreliable,” MC engineers said.

“The water supply from pumping stations is fluctuating between 35 MLD daily and 44.75 MLD that we got today and consumers are getting about 70 per cent of the water pumped from five major schemes,” said Gill.

The GSWSSC is supplying water to the surrounding rural areas of Craignano, Fagu and Kufri, Chharabra, Mendli, Shanag and other areas. “The city used to get about 22 MLD to 30 MLD water in March and April, but now sthe ituation has improved,” the MC engineers said.