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Repair work at Kajauli leaves taps dry in Chandigarh
With repair work underway in the first two phases of the Kajauli waterworks, water supply to the city was affected on Sunday, leaving residents with little or no
With repair work underway in the first two phases of the Kajauli waterworks, water supply to the city was affected on Sunday, leaving residents with little or no supply in the evening.
Even though the municipal corporation (MC) had apprised residents of the repair and subsequent low water pressure, several residents complained that water was not even supplied continuously during the regular supply hours of 5am to 8am and 6pm to 8:30pm.
“Water supply was supposed to last till 8am, but it was cut off before 7am. In the evening, supply resumed only at 7pm and was reduced to few drops by 8pm,” said Surinder Sharma, president of the Sector 15 Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA).
In Sector 44-B, RWA president Swadesh Talwar said they did not get any water in the evening: “We were told by the MC officials that the filters were choked, and the pumping motors were burnt out, and that we may not receive any water even on Monday due to this.”
Residents of Sector 39-B also complained of no evening supply. RWA president Amardeep Singh said the supply started only around 8pm and was turned off in no time, giving residents barely any time to stock up on water.
In Sector 19-B, RL Goyal said there was hardly any water supply during the day, forcing residents to make alternative arrangements.
Meanwhile, MC has allocated 50 water tankers at seven centres to provide free water. Residents can contact the numbers provided by MC (see box) to request for water tankers.
According to MC officials, the water shortage can be expected on Monday as well as repairs were scheduled through the day. Normal supply is likely to resume on Tuesday.
Chandigarh receives 58 million gallons per day (MGD) of water from the four phases of the waterworks.
However, only half of this is currently available due to the repairs underway in the first two phases.
According to figures accessed from the MC public health department, the city has witnessed 260 water supply breakdowns since January 2016 due to repeated technical snags at the Kajauli waterworks, which route the Bhakra Canal water to Chandigarh through a 40km pipeline.
