SMC sets March 31 deadline to tide over water crisis

Kuldeep Chauhan

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Tribune News Service

Shimla, March 28

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) has set the March 31 deadline to supply 38 MLD water to the city every day.

Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan and Deputy Mayor Tikender Panwar blamed the Congress and the BJP for the water crisis in the city.

While politics over the water shortage has hot up ahead of the civic elections due in May this year, the crisis is bound to deepen in the coming months as the tourist arrival has started picking up.

“Both the BJP and the Congress did nothing to plug 60 per cent leakage in the main water pipes and allowed construction of the Malyana Sewage Treatment Plant right on top of the Ashwani Khud,” said Chauhan.

The city has the installed capacity of 65 MLD from the main water schemes, but the SMC is getting 35 MLD daily as the leakage in Giri, Guma and other sources was not plugged.

Shimla needs about 45 MLD of water daily. Following the jaundice outbreak, the SMC had stopped the supply from the Ashwani Khud. The alternative Koti-Barandi scheme is supplying 2-3 MLD daily. As a result, the city is facing water shortage.

BJP workers, who were beating empty buckets, exposed the party’s failure to solve the problem when it was in power, they claimed. “The Congress government is all out to sabotage the proper functioning of the newly created Greater Shimla Water and Sewerage Circle by not recruiting the JEs, they charged.

On measures to improve the water supply, the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor claimed that the augmentation of the Giri water supply scheme was successfully tested yesterday. “We have deployed 25 nodal officers in the city. Municipal Commissioner and Superintending Engineer are monitoring the 2,000-m Giri water pipeline and we hope to restore it by March 31,” they said.

The SMC is spending Rs 100 crore on water pipelines, old pumps and water tanks. “We will get 5 to 7 million lt water daily. We now have to supply water to Shanan, Totu and New Shimla as well,” the Mayor said.

On the periphery of the city, residents are going to far-off places to fetch water. “Even private water tankers are charging Rs 1,000,” rued hoteliers.

The Mayor said the Irrigation and Public Health should augment its supply in peripheral areas by restarting its old sources, giving relief to residents of Mehli.