Water crisis leaves Kasauli residents high and dry

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, May 18

With a sharp decline in the water level of various schemes at villages in Kasauli, residents are getting water after four days.

Since the area is fed by a majority of local schemes based on natural water sources, scant rain has reduced the water supply by as much as 50 to 75 per cent in certain places like Bohli, Bhojnagar, Dharampur, Garkhal and Johrjee.

Officials of the Irrigation and Public Health Department said they were monitoring the situation on a daily basis, adding that several villages of the Kasauli constituency were being supplied water after three to four days.

An official said they had requested the district administration to provide water tankers at these places as the situation could worsen in the days to come.

The Giri Potable Water Supply Scheme was supposed to feed some areas of the Kasauli constituency, besides the Solan area, but its water was not available to these villages. With hardly any new potable water scheme having been introduced in the Kasauli area in the last several years, the residents face worst water shortage in the summer every year.

Private hoteliers, on the other hand, have explored various sites, from where they draw water in the peak tourist season.

Even residential schools in the Kasauli area have complained of getting lesser water, owing to its shortage from various authorities like the MES. “Though managements of some schools are recycling water and have introduced water harvesting structures, stress is on conserving water,” said an official of a residential school.