Summer is here, so is water crisis in tricity

Ramkrishan Upadhyay
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, May 21

Despite tall claims of the Municipal Corporation, residents of many sectors in the city are facing water crisis. Residents of southern sectors are the worst hit.

The problem is acute for thousands of residents of group housing societies in southern sectors. Those living on the upper floors suffer the most. Satish Kumar Sharma, a resident of a housing society in Sector 51, said those living on upper floors get water supply hardly for an hour in a day. Residents of Sector 29-B, Dhanas and Bapu Dham Colony also face low water supply.

Baljinder Singh Bittu, president, Federation of Sector Welfare Associations Chandigarh (FOSWAC) said residents of Sector 21-C face water shortage every year.

Surjit Singh, a resident of Sector 20, said not a drop of water reached upper floors in their area and they faced this problem every summer.

Residents of Mani Majra and colonies lament poor water supply. They have been forced to approach private water tanker suppliers and loosen their purse strings.

SS Bhardwaj, a resident of CHB flats in Sector 51, said the tanks on the rooftops of flats remain empty during summer.

City witnesses a shortfall of 25 million gallons per day (MGD) of water against the demand of 110 MGD in summers. Presently, the city is receiving 87 MGD of water. Out of this, 68 MGD comes from the Kajauli waterworks while the remaining is drawn through tubewells.

Mayor Rajesh Kalia said the MC would get additional water supply soon. He said once the city got additional water, residents would not have to complain about inadequate supply.

For time being, Don’t expect additional water from Kajauli

• Residents’ wait for additional water supply is not yet over. While the MC claimed to provide additional water from April, it has failed to do so yet. The city will get additional water of 29 MGD via new pipelines of Phase 5 and 6 of the Kajauli project.
• Sources said while the MC had connected the water supply from Bhakhra canal to the new pipelines of Phase 5 and 6 of the Kajauli project. The new pipelines failed to bear the pressure of the released water and got damaged near the Morinda overbridge. 
• Now, the Punjab Government will lay a new pipeline again. This will take at least a month. 

Cops intervene as residents have heated exchange

The situation is so intense in Sector 21-C that residents have started calling police to intervene. A high drama was witnessed in the area recently when a person living on the first floor dialled ‘100’ to make those living on the ground floor to close taps so that water could reach the upper floor.