Mussoorie faces water crisis, residents blame MDDA

Tribune News Service

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Mussoorie, April 16

Residents of Mussoorie are facing the problem of drinking water shortage. A meeting of senior officials was organised in this concern in the past, but nothing has been done so far. The residents have demanded a CBI inquiry to look into the matter.

Eminent travelogue writer couple from Mussoorie, Hugh and Hugh and Colleen Gantzer, said it is for the first time in their 76 years stay in the town that the supply of drinking water had been restricted to 45 minutes a day.

They said the Jal Sansthan and the Mussoorie-Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) were responsible for drinking water shortage.

“We have demanded a CBI enquiry in this matter so that the real picture comes to the fore,” they said.

Hugh Gantzer said Mussoorie had no wells or rivers and therefore it was dependent on natural springs around the valley, but water had to be pumped to higher reservoirs as most of the pumping equipments were old and unable to discharge enough water.

The MDDA, while approving an additional construction of an apartment block, did not consider the height of the apartment block as it is difficult to pump water to higher buildings.

A Carrying Capacity Study, commissioned by the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee, was carried out in 1998 highlighting the limited water resources in Mussoorie, but this was ignored.

When contacted Assistant Engineer Jal Sansthan TS Rawat said the requisition sent to the senior officials for replacing the pumps had been approved and would be installed in a month.

He said the shortage of drinking water was due to the fault in the electricity transformers at Jhinsi and Kolti water pumping stations.