Only 10 days’ water supply left in Ranchi’s Hatia dam, 2 lakh people likely to suffer
RANCHI: Despite the state receiving normal monsoon rainfall in June, one of the major dams of Ranchi at at Hatia that quenches thirst of over two lakh residents of the capital city has water storage that will merely last for 10 more days, officials said on Thursday.
The residents, who are dependent on water supply from the dam, have already been facing water rationing of two days in a week from April 16 this year.
The dam officials said the catchment areas of the dam have not received sufficient rainfall till date, even though weather department officials said there might be other reasons for declining water level in the dam, as there has been adequate monsoon rain in June.
The dam, which supplies around eight million gallons of water to domestic connections and plants every day, recorded only 4.5 feet water level as on Thursday, which was 15.5 feet on the same day last year.
“The situation is critical. We have water storage for merely 10-12 days. If the catchment areas remain deprived of good rainfall for the next few days, residents might have to go for further rationing,” said Md Reyaz Alam, executive engineer of Hatia project division of drinking water and sanitation (DWS) department.The dam received scanty rainfall in its catchment areas in June this year, he said. “Rain water flows down to the dam from Nagri and Bero blocks. However, there wasn’t enough rainfall in those areas,” Alam said.
The areas of the city which are likely to be affected by the shortage of water in the dam are HEC residential area and plant, Hatia railway station, Ranchi airport, Hawai Nagar, Birsa Chowk to Hinoo, Hatia station road, Bandhu Nagar, Prakash Nagar, Gandhi Nagar and Shukla Colony.
Ranchi city gets water supply to the tune of 42 million gallon per day from three major dams of Hatia, Rukka and Kanke. However, Rukka and Kanke dams have the adequate water level.
As per the weather department, Ranchi district has suffered 11% rainfall deficit till now. The district has received 205.9mm of rainfall from June 1 to July 2 as against the normal rainfall of 232.2mm rainfall during the period.
However, overall rain deficit in the state is a mere four per cent. The state has received 209.3mm rainfall from June 1 to July 2 against the normal rainfall of 218.5mm rainfall.
Deputy director at Meteorological Centre, Ranchi, Abhishek Anand said rainfall could not be blamed for water shortage in the dam, as monsoon rain has been good so far.
“There could be other reasons too. It is possible that inflow of water to the dam from its sources has been blocked or water demand has increased,” he said.