Jammu battles acute water scarcity

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 21

The Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department’s much-talked about contingency plans to tide over drinking water shortage have miserably failed in the winter capital of the state with many parts of Jammu city getting water supply after a gap of three to four days and that too, for just 45-50 minutes.

Consequently, there is a simmering discontent and resentment among the residents as the grim situation has emerged in ‘Shravan Maas’ which is considered as one of the holiest months in the year as per the Hindu calendar. The ‘Sawan’ month, as per the Hindu mythology, is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

Leave aside the domestic water needs of people, sometimes the devotees of Lord Shiva do not even get water to offer at most of the temples in the city. Much to the people’s annoyance, the PHE officials are inaccessible to them.

“The unavailability of drinking water to people has punctured the balloon of good governance being claimed by the BJP-PDP government. We had never seen such a water crisis in the past. While the PHE officials have nothing to say except for giving lame excuses, the ruling politicians have turned a blind to the situation,” a furious Shashi Pal, a resident of Mubarak Mandi, said.

Vivek Sharma, a resident of Pacci Dhaki area, said, “There was no water in the temple of Lord Shiva on the first Monday of the ‘Sawan’ month which caused great resentment among the devotees. Not just the PHE authorities, the ruling leadership has also been hurting the religious sentiments of people. Where are their action plans for the summer and monsoon seasons? There seems to be a complete collapse of governance as the government has failed to fix the responsibility for faulty planning on the part of the authorities.”

Former minister and senior Congress leader Raman Bhalla said, “The first monsoon showers have negated the PHE department’s claim of providing safe and pure drinking water. Many parts of the city have gone dry while many others are being supplied muddy water. The Sitlee filtration plant at Nagrota and Boria and Dhounthly water-lifting stations, which supply water to nearly 75 per cent of the households of Jammu city, are either supplying muddy water or there is no water at all for people.”

When contacted, Rajesh Gupta, MLA, Jammu east, admitted that residents were facing acute shortage of water. He attributed the problem to the slowdown of operations in pumping stations and filtration plants due to accumulation of silt in the machinery.

“The previous regimes did not show any seriousness in chalking out long-term plans to deal with such crisis. I have managed to get sanctioned two tube wells near Dhounthly which will help us in dealing with the problem in the future,” he added.

Senior PHE officers remained inaccessible as they did not respond to repeated phone calls.

Dept fails to rectify snag at Ambphalla

Amit Khajuria

Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 21

It has been nine days but the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department has failed to rectify the snag in the main water supply line at Main Dido Chowk, Ambphalla, leaving many areas of the old city without water.

Residents of Mian Dido Chowk, Old Rehari, Sarwal, Panjtirthi and Ambphalla are without water for the past nine days.

Locals have approached the Executive Engineer and the Chief Engineer concerned to get the problem fixed, but to no avail. The authorities say that their teams are on the job to solve the problem. On the ground, however, things are different. 

The PHE Department blamed the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) for the damage to the water supply line. 

Chief Engineer, PHE Department, Sushil Aima said his people were on the job. “I have told you earlier also that my men are looking for the snag. I cannot give you the exact time when the water supply will be restored,” Aima said.

Meanwhile, people of the affected areas have decided to gherao the PHE Department and hold a sit-in on the Jammu-Srinagar national highway if the government fails to fix the problem.

Executive Engineer Hamesh Manchanda said due to the repairing process, some mud and silt had settled in the pipes, causing the blockade.