Panchkula residents write to Haryana CM Khattar over hard water

Tribune News Service

Panchkula, April 17

City residents have written to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Vidhan Sabha Speaker Gian Chand Gupta, seeking immediate respite from hard water – a problem they are facing since the inception of Panchkula with tubewells remaining the main source of the water supply.

What residents say

As the potable drinking water is a fundamental right, we want the CM and the Speaker to personally intervene and direct the officers concerned to take up the matter on a priority basis. KK Jindal, President, Sec 20 RWA

Since 2018, the Sector 20 Residents’ Welfare Association said it had been requesting the Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran to repair a portion of the underground water pipeline to bring the supply of raw water from the Kaushalya Dam. They said around 300 metres of the pipeline had been swept away during the rainy season in 2018 and since then, the supply from the dam was lying snapped.

“As the potable drinking water is a fundamental right, we want the Chief Minister and the Speaker to personally intervene and direct the officers concerned to take up the matter on a priority basis,” says KK Jindal, president of the Sector 20 RWA.

The RWA has also requested the authorities to make arrangements for mixing canal water with tubewell supply in approved proportion so that the water can be used in an optimum manner and better supply can be achieved.

Jindal said, “The problem of hard water has persisted in the city since the inception of Panchkula in 1977, as the water is supplied through tubewells. After a lot of efforts by the Haryana Government, two schemes were prepared to supply potable water. Accordingly, the first scheme was made and executed in the form of the Kaushalya Dam built across the Ghaggar near Pinjore to tap rainwater, which used to overflow and was creating floods downstream. To augment the water supply in Panchkula and to supply potable water, a pipeline was laid from the dam to Sector 1, Panchkula, where a filtration plant and an underground water tank were made at a cost of crores of rupees to mitigate the problem. This project was working well and a large number of sectors got some respite from the hard water for quite some time. However, it has come to our notice from reliable sources that during the rainy season in 2018, a portion of about 300 metres of this underground pipeline was swept away and from then on, the supply of raw water from the dam stopped.”

“It is a matter of great concern and apathy on the part of the HSVP that this 300-metre damaged pipeline cannot be repaired and the ball is shuttling between the HSVP and the NHAI. This matter can be easily sorted out by the commissioner of the NHAI, principal secretaries of the Town and Country Planning as well as the B&R/Public Health departments of Haryana,” he said.

The RWA has also complained about low water pressure.

HSVP officials could not be contacted for their remarks. —

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