Water woes disruption leaves Chandigarh, Mohali residents high and dry - Hindustan Times
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Water woes disruption leaves Chandigarh, Mohali residents high and dry

Hindustan Times | By, Chandigarh
Jun 20, 2015 12:07 AM IST

Due to the maintenance work at the Kajauli water works, the residents of Chandigarh and SAS Nagar have been at the receiving end due to the acute shortage of water for the past two days. The most affected among all were those residing on the first and second floor of the houses. The residents say they have been facing the slow water pressure problem for the past one month.

Due to the maintenance work at the Kajauli water works, the residents of Chandigarh and SAS Nagar have been at the receiving end due to the acute shortage of water for the past two days.

The most affected among all were those residing on the first and second floor of the houses. The residents say they have been facing the slow water pressure problem for the past one month.

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Though on June 17, the MC had issued an alert that the water supply from Kajauli water works will remain disrupted on June 18 and 19, the supply remained erratic on Friday evening too.

NP Sharma, superintending engineer, Municipal Corporation, said, "The water supply remained erratic due to repair work on Phase 3 and 4. The work has been completed and it will be normal by Saturday morning."

The city is facing shortage of water despite installation of as many as 38 tubewells in 2014, and the worst affected areas are Sectors 1 to 12, 15, 22, 27, 28, 31, 32, 34, 35, 44, 45, 46 and 48 to 51.

Chander Mohan Makkar, resident of Sector 21B, said, "The repair work can be easily done in winters, too, but the MC always carries out the maintenance work in summer. And, people residing on the first and second floors get minimum one-hour supply during the day, which is not enough to meet the daily requirement."

Arvind Uberio, resident of Sector 15, said, "This shows clear lack of planning on the part of the MC. The officials concerned are not serious about addressing civic problems, and minor problem like this, too, takes two days to resume water supply."

Harrowing time for Mohali residents

Similar to Chandigarh, the SAS Nagar residents have also been facing a harrowing time due to the poor water supply. A snag in Phase 3 of the Kajauli water works, which the administration claims has been taken care of, has locals high and dry.

The worst affected areas are Phase 9 and 10, Industrial Areas Phase 1 to 5, Phase 11 and even 3B2. Though the water supply to parks has been held up completely, locals got partial supply or no supply at all.

Sarabjit Singh Dhaliwal, a resident from Phase 9, said, "We have been facing severe water shortage for the past three days and you can't survive without water in summer."

Sources say the present demand for water in the city is around 25MGD (million gallons per day) against the actual supply of 13 MGD. A total of 10 MGD water is being supplied through four pipelines of Kajauli (Phases 1, 2, 3 and 4), while the rest 3 MGD comes from nearly 55 tubewells in SAS Nagar.

Pertinent to mention that the construction work of laying water pipes at Phase 4 and 6 of the Kajauli water works is yet to be completed, a major reason behind water woes.

Officials say it would take another two years to complete the work. Meanwhile, leakage remains another issue that adds to the low water pressure and erratic supply.

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