Water crisis in Dera Bassi village

Bipin Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Daffarpur (Dera Bassi), May 31

Nearly 500 families of Daffarpur village in Dera Bassi subdivison, located on the Panchkula border near Mubarikpur, have been facing hardships due to an acute shortage of potable water for the past one month.

Residing in Punjab village, the residents are on the mercy of villagers in Haryana for portable water.

The women of the village and newly developed colonies travel a long distance to get water for the domestic purposes.

Though the affected families claimed to he have paid money to representatives of the village panchayat for laying water pipes and setting up an electricity transformer in the area two years ago, the facilities are still a distant dream for them.

To meet their daily water requirement, the villagers are forced to purchase water from the open market for Rs 300 per tanker.

Rajni Malhotra, a resident of Guru Nanak Colony, claimed of facing the problem in the past too but the water crises has virtually turned them them ‘baggers’ this year. “Even after spending over Rs 1,500, the problem persists,” said Sumitra, an area resident.

“We are purchasing water for domestic purposes but for the potable water, the area residents are on the mercy of the residents of neighbouring colonies in Ramgarh village (falling in Panchkula, Haryana),” said Lalita, another resident. Dalbir Singh, a villager, said repeated representations to officials of the Punjab Public Health Department and Punjab State Power Corporation Limited failed to yield results. Avtar Singh, Subdivisional Officer (SDO), Public Health, said they had not received any complaint regarding the issue so far. He claimed that there was no shortage of water in the area.

The SDO, however, apprehend that there could be a blockage in the water supply pipes and he would ask the contractor to check the water supply lies tomorrow.