Pithoragarh, Champawat areas getting water on alternate days

BD Kasniyal

Pithoragarh, June 10

With the rise in the temperature in the last four days, the drinking water problem has aggravated in Pithoragarh and Champawat districts. The availability of drinking water has hit a low and residents are provided water on alternate days as natural water sources have gone dry.

The towns of Pithoragarh, Muwani, Ganai, Gangolihat, Didihat in Pithoragarh district and Tanakpur, Lohaghat and Champawat towns are facing an acute drinking water shortage these days as the capacity of the natural sources supplying water to these towns has reduced to half.

“This is for the first time that Muwani and Ganai towns situated by the Ramaganga and Saryu rivers are being provided drinking water through tankers as the natural sources which used to supply waster to these places have gone dry due to scorching heat,” said Dipak Karki, a social worker in Muwani town.

According to Jal Sansthan officers in Pithoragarh town, water is being supplied in the town on alternate days as, according to the sources, against the demand of 11 MLD drinking water, it is getting only 5.5 MLD of water these days. “We are getting 2.5 MLD of water from the Thuligar pumping scheme while the main ghat pumping scheme is giving us 3 MLD of drinking water, which is insufficient. More than 1 lakh population of the town needs nearly 11 MLD of drinking water,” said RK Verma, a Jal Sansthan official.

He hoped that the drinking water problems of the Pithoragarh town would be solved by 2017 when the Anwalaghat scheme gets commissioned.

Some localities in Tanakpur town are not getting drinking water supply for last one week as the department officials have not repaired the pipeline that was damaged last year. While in Lohaghat town the scheme is not properly lifting drinking water from the Lohawati river where the water level has reduced by 45 per cent in the last four days.