Gurgaon: South City 2, Palam Vihar residents reel under water crisis, threaten protest

Around 50,000 residents in the South City 2 and Palam Vihar areas have been depending on tanker water to meet their daily needs

Residents of South City-2 and Palam Vihar have been badly hit by the persistent water shortage in the area. They said that they have met a number of officials over the last six days to seek respite from the acute water shortage due to the repair of Huda water pipeline, which has been going on for the past seven days.

The crisis was caused by a leakage in the Huda water pipeline. (Parveen Kumar/HT)

The residents alleged that if the crisis continues, they will stage a protest.

Around 50,000 residents in the area have been dependent on water tankers for almost several days due to the water shortage.

“The water crisis is not new in the area. There is no one to hold the builder and Huda to account. They blame each other, but there is no relief for the residents who bear the brunt of the crisis,” Neeraj Yadav, president, RWA, South City 2, said.

The residents had to fall back on private tanker operators to meet their daily needs for as long as the normal groundwater supply was disrupted.

“Over the last one month, water supply has been irregular and unreliable. Hence, I had no option but to rely on the services of a private tank operator to ensure enough supply to meet our day-to-day needs,” Ved Prakash Yadav, a resident of South City 2, said.

Read I Gurgaon: Water shortage to continue for another week, says Huda

“The builder’s ignorance about infrastructure is the major problem and they are still neglecting the issue. There are no back-up plans to deal with emergency situations,” BS Chauhan, treasurer of the RWA, said.

The water pipeline had developed leakages in its valve last month and is being repaired due to which the water supply was interrupted.

On the other hand, the leak in the pipeline near Palam Vihar on Tuesday resulted in disruption of supply to Palam Vihar. The residents have been without water for several days, met Huda administrator Yashpal Yadav on Wednesday and urged him to take immediate steps to restore supply. However, little came of it.

“We have been facing tough problems and are not able to wash clothes and utensils during the day, as we store the tanker water for bathing and emergency,” Nirmala Mann, a resident of Palam Viharm, said.

“I have directed the engineers to repair the leakage immediately at South City-2 and at Iffco Chowk. I have also directed them to ensure that the supply from Huda’s Basai plant to underground reservoirs in these sectors remains uninterrupted,” Yashpal Yadav, Huda administrator, said.