Defunct tubewells supply water worries
Civic bodies asked to complete all boring and re-boring work to ensure water supply before May 20
LUCKNOW: Often considered to be a perennial problem, water scarcity may no longer haunt the city’s two dozen ‘deficient’ areas in the days to come.
On Tuesday, the district administration directed civic agencies in the city to ensure supply in all water-scarce localities before May 20.
As per the strict order, the district administration also asked the agencies — Jal Sansthan and Jal Nigam — to assess the reasons for water deficiency in these localities.
“It should not take longer than May 20 to fix the problem and to make water available in all parts of the city,” directed Raj Shekhar, district magistrate, while addressing a marathon meeting to combat water scarcity, late on Monday evening.
“The Jal Sansthan and Jal Nigam should complete all boring or re-boring work to start direct supply within the stipulated period of time,” Shekhar added, after going through the poor demand-supply figures.
As per the records with Jal Sansthan, the city needs 675 MLD of water on a daily basis. But, the current availability is only 568 MLD. Officials with Jal Sansthan cited the shortfall of 107 MLD as the root cause of prevailing water scarcity in the city.
They also identified the other reasons for the water crisis. Of the total 616 tubewells, 35 were permanently abandoned because they were unrepairable while 34 others were suffering from ‘low output syndrome’.
However, officials told the DM that the nagar nigam, this year had sanctioned five new tubewells and re-boring of 10 tubewells.
Constant fall in the groundwater table was also affecting water supply in the city. “It is observed that there is a constant 5-ft depletion in the groundwater level. At present, the water table is at 180 metres,” officials further told the DM.
It was also found that Alambagh and Aliganj were the worst sufferers. Both the localities were totally reliant on tubewell water supply and of the 50 tubewells here, four were lying defunct, said officials, adding that it would take a few more days for them to repair the tubewells.
However, the district magistrate ordered the officials to make alternative arrangements in the localities grappling with temporary faults. He also asked the Jal Sansthan and nagar nigam to start its pending project of establishing water works at Alambagh, Aliganj, Sultanpur and Rae Bareli road.
“I am sure, after the installation of the pumping stations, the deficit will be wiped out,” said the district magistrate.
The DM also warned Jal Nigam executive engineer, Jal Sansthan GM and other officers concerned for their lethargic approach towards re-boring of defunct handpumps.
It was found that out of 15,800 handpumps, around 2,500 were lying defunct. Officers told the DM that the money to re-bore around 509 handpumps had been sanctioned but following the ‘lacklustre attitude’ of Jal Nigam, only 100 handpumps could be re-bored.
On this, the DM directed the officers concerned to complete the re-boring in 40 days or face suspension.
He also created a whatsapp group in order to keep tabs on the day-to-day progress. He asked the officers to keep the district administration informed (on the group) about the daily progress of work.