For water needs, PHE Dept presses for more tube wells

Sumit Hakhoo

Tribune News Service

Jammu, November 24

Rising pollution and decline in water discharge during dry months in the Tawi is forcing the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department to rely on costly tube wells to meet the supply of 15 lakh residents of the city.

There are already 262 heavy tube wells operating in the temple city and over a dozen more are being planned in the coming months.

Sources said with the fate of the Chenab water diversion project hanging in air and the Tawi being exploited to hilt, the PHE officials were seeking greater investment in digging more heavy-duty tube wells across Jammu to meet the growing demand of the rising population in the city, which was expanding fast due to the influx of people from militancy-infested Kashmir division and other districts of the state.

Environmentalists have already raised the concerns of groundwater contamination. Of 50 million gallons daily (MGD) water being supplied to the city population, 27 MGD is from tube wells alone while 23 MGD is from the Tawi. However, Jammu is still short of 15 MGD of water on a routine basis.

“We are under a huge pressure to meet the demand and there is a massive plan to exploit the underground sources. We fear that huge aquifers placed underground are getting contaminated, but no consideration is being given to this issue,” said a senior official in the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA), which is entrusted the work to dug up underground water.

Admitting that except three months i.e. November, December and January, the government is not able to meet the requirement of people, a senior official in the PHE Department claimed: “We don’t have any reliable sub-surface source of water, except the polluted Tawi and exploitation of under-surface sources is the only way to keep people’s anger at bay.”

There is a long-pending demand of the department that the government should speed up the Chenab water diversion project to end the perennial drinking water crisis in Jammu.

PHE Department Chief Engineer AK Gandotra said till the Chenab project was approved and commissioned, there would be dependence on underground sources. “We are doing everything to meet water needs. Now, it’s up to the government to take a call on the Chenab project,” Gandotra added.

Officials said in the next few weeks, four more tube wells will be handed over to the PHE by ERA at Hari Singh Park on the banks of the Tawi, Rajinder Nagar (Bantalab), Malik Market and Channi Himmat.

City short of 15-MGD water

Of 50 million gallons daily (MGD) water being supplied to the city population, 27 MGD is from tube wells alone while 23 MGD is from the Tawi. However, Jammu is still short of 15 MGD of water on a routine basis.

Authorities paying no heed

We are under great pressure to meet the demand and there is a massive plan to exploit the underground sources. We fear that underground aquifers are getting contaminated, but no consideration is being given to the issue. — A senior era official

Time to kick-start Chenab project

We are dependent on underground sources till the Chenab water diversion project is approved and commissioned. Also, we are doing everything to meet water needs. Now, it’s up to the government to take a call on the Chenab project. — AK Gandotra, chief engineer, PHE department