Water crisis adds to Chandigarh villages’ woes

CHANDIGARH: “The government is emphatic that we wash our hands every half an hour to keep the coronavirus at bay. But we don’t have enough water even for drinking or cooking,” said Ajay Pandey, resident of Daria, a village on the periphery of Chandigarh, where several localities have been struggling with water scarcity for two weeks now.

Pandey was among several others who gathered with empty buckets near Boriwali Gali Tubewell in Daria Colony on Tuesday to protest . Raje Da Bagh and Sunrise School Colony, where more than 500 families live, are also facing a water crisis, said Daria’s former sarpanch Gupreet Singh Happy.

Chandigarh civic body’s junior engineer, Jatinder Walia, said most areas where water supply is erratic fall outside the lal dora area of the village, where people have illegally punctured water pipes. “But the situation will ease as we have increased operational hours of tubewells,” he said. However, area volunteer Sunil Singh said these were lame excuses as 90% residents outside lal dora have legal water connections, and the real issue is that water supply is falling short for increasing population.

Residents of Sanjay Colony near Industrial Area also protested water scarcity last Friday. Area councillor Shakti Prakash Devshali said the colony’s only source of water is the stand post.

Complaints are also pouring in from Hallomajra, Ram Darbar, Kishangarh, Palsora, Dhanas and Maloya. A Kishangarh resident Narinder Lubana said there were only two tubewells for 22,000 residents. Satish Kainth, Congress councillor of Palsora, said ₹200 crore was spent to bring an additional 29 MGD canal water but the distribution system is wanting. “If most residents there have legal water connections, how can MC or UT deny them their right?” Kainth asked.

UT administrator VP Singh Badnore directed MC commissioner KK Yadav to ensure adequate drinking water supply to the city via tankers.

UT ADMINISTRATOR HAS

ASKED THE CIVIC BODY TO ENSURE DRINKING WATER SUPPLY TO THE CITY VIA TANKERS