Shimla: Water scarcity haunts 3K residents of Kupvi

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Shimla, December 13

Around 3,000 residents of Kupvi, a small town in Shimla district, are not getting water supply regularly. Alleging that they get water once or twice in eight to 10 days, the residents claim they are facing the problem because the pipes have not been laid properly.

“A water scheme worth crores was dedicated to Kupvi in 2019-20. However, the pipes have not been laid properly. Due to the faulty laying, there’s a problem of excessive leakage, pressure and bursting of pipes,” said Suresh Kumar, vice-pradhan of Jaddu Shilla gram panchayat, under which Kupvi falls. “We suspect corruption is reason for such poor work. The whole scheme should be investigated,” he said.

Sharp, an NGO comprising local youth, also support the allegation. “To begin with, the scheme was not started from the initially identified point at the source. The pipes were laid from much below the identified source to apparently save pipes,” said Lokender Chauhan, secretary of Sharp.

“The pipes have not been put underground at several places. Also, the majority of sockets are loose, due to which there’s massive leakage at various points. As a result, the pipes have hardly any water left to deliver in Kupvi,” said Sudershan Dhirta, president of Sharp.

Chopal Subdivisional Officer, who holds the additional charge of Kupvi, said the main problem in the scheme was of sockets. “The sockets have not been fitted properly. We have fixed 25-28 points and will repair the remaining points, too,” said Kanwar Singh, adding that the repair work has considerably improved the water supply to Kupvi now.