PARADIP: Supply of drinking water to the port town has been curbed for the last 26 days on the pretext of maintenance work, thereby worsening the summer woes of its residents.Drinking water scarcity is more acute in the thickly-populated residential colonies at Nua Bazaar, Bada Padia, Nehru Bungalow and Ghanagholia. Similar is the situation in 26 slums of Paradip town.
Earlier, PHED Executive Engineer Binayak Pradhan had announced that some major repair works on supply pipelines have been taken up from March 1. As a result, the department has limited water supply to once a day instead of two times to households of the port town till March 15. However, locals alleged that though 12 days have passed since the March 15 deadline, water is still being supplied once a day.
Sources said the existing water supply system being managed by Paradip Port Trust (PPT) is unable to cater to the demand as there has been massive growth in the town and its suburbs.
There are three water reservoirs in Paradip port having a capacity to store three million gallons. These reservoirs cater to 2600 employees of PPT and nearly 85,000 population in and around Paradip. This apart, PPT supplies drinking water to international ships which dock at the port.However, the drinking water demand in the township and slum pockets has gone up drastically to five million gallons per day with the increase in population.
As per reports, the depth of three reservoirs, which were constructed in 1963, has come down to 11 metre from 15 metre due to lack of maintenance.Making the situation worse, digging and repair work is underway at Jobra in Cuttack due to which supply of Mahanadi river water has been stopped through Taladanda canal.
Executive Engineer of Mahanadi South Division, Cuttack Baleswernath Sahoo said as per requirement of PPT, Irrigation department supplies 250 cusec of water through Taladadanda canal. However, water has been stopped due to construction of a bridge by Paradip Municipality resulting in the scarcity.
PPT’s demand for more water to mitigate the crisis cannot be met as excess supply through Taladananda canal will affect the green gram crops of farmers of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapda and Cuttack districts, he added.