Naked goes dry, Beas quenches the thirst of Dehra residents

Raghav Guleria

Dharamsala, June 13

The mercury is touching new highs and water sources are drying up fast. Residents of Dehra town have been spending anxious days as the situation rapidly moved from bad to worse due to the falling water level in Naked Khud.

Dehra and the majority of the villages around it depend on water pumped from the Naked rivulet, in which the water level started falling lower and lower with each passing day this summer. There are eight pumping stations in the river’s basin, which got severely affected due to high temperature and no rain.

Jal Shakti dept’s commendable effort

• Dehra, with majority of the peripheral villages around it, is dependent on the water pumped from the Naked rivulet, which started getting dry with each passing day this summer
• There are eight pumping stations in the river’s basin, which got severely affected due to high temperature and no precipitation
• The Jal Shakti Department, sensing the enormity of the crisis, got active and was successful in lifting water from the Beas to make up for the reduced supply from Naked

The Jal Shakti Department, sensing the enormity of the crisis, got active and was successful in lifting water from the Beas to make up for the reduced supply from Naked. Sources reveal that a lot of effort has gone in to achieving this feat.

Dehra Executive Engineer Aneesh Thakur, said, “To quench the thirst of Dehra town, the department has replenished water supply in record time through the newly installed 30-hp motor lifting water from the Beas up to the treatment plant, followed by another 70-hp motor for storage and distribution.”

“Now, we have sufficient water to meet the demand of the town as well as the adjoining villages. Since the quantum of water available has substantially increased, the department is thinking of interlinking the adjoining villages like Shivnath, Khabli, Mangarh, Paisa and Meyol with this new lifting to improve their water needs,” he added.

Dehra also includes villages falling in Haripur tehsil, which primarily depend on the Baner, emerging from the snow-clad Dhauladhars to finally merge into the Pong lake. There are six water lifting schemes on the Baner basin dedicated for these villages, but the decreasing water availability here as well looms like a threat over the area residents.

People living in Indira Colony, Bangoli and Bhatoli are adversely affected due to water scarcity. According to the Executive Engineer, there are issues related to voltage and fluctuation in electricity that are adversely affecting the pumping stations.

He is now personally taking it up with HPSEB officials to streamline the problem. The water level in the wells here is rapidly dropping and majority of ponds have dried up.

The situation is grim for animals, especially the ones living in the wild, as in extreme hot conditions there is absolutely no water left in the forests. The situation serves as a reminder for the growing severity of the water crisis afflicting several counties across the globe.