More demand than water tankers in Chandigarh

CHANDIGARH: The water crisis in the city must be too big to handle, for the municipal corporation couldn’t respond to 26.81% of the calls for water tanker in the past three days.

On May 4, the MC received 314 calls for water tanker, of which it was able to cover only 254 spots in 73 rounds. It took 20 tankers and still 60 places were not covered, since the water supply had run out, says the public health division of the MC. On May 3, the civic body received 395 calls for water tanker and could fulfil the requirement of 103 callers. On May 2, the public health department fail to respond to another 114 requests for water.

Most of the requests made over the MC helpline number came from Sectors 20 and 22. “It’s a rare occasion when we couldn’t send water tanker to all the places where it was required. Even we have a

shortage

of water supply,” subdivisional engineer-12 Jagdish Singh said. Referring to the repair work that’s on at the Bhakra canal, he said: “The water shortage will remain only till May 6. It is not possible for the public health department to meet the water demand of an entire city through tankers, since it is a back-up service meant only for an emergency situation.”

About the infrastructure available with the public health department of the MC, junior engineer Vinod Kumar said: “The department has 13 tankers of its own and seven hired from a private supplier. Since the demand for water is higher in summer, the department is struggling to meet multiple requests from individual sectors in a single visit. The tanker crew now logs three shifts.

One of the oldest sectors of Chandigarh—22— is into water crisis when the city is progressing towards claiming the tag of “smart”.

Its residents have grown accustomed to low water supply. Since the

water tankers

are becoming a daily necessity, the residents’ concern has now shifted to the delay in supply from this source. Residents complain that the water tanker do not arrive for up to two days after being called. A few residents have switched to calling private water tankers.

During a visit to Sector 22 on Friday, TOI had gathered from the residents of the government staff quarters that they faced a difficult situation due to a dependence upon the MC water supply. They are not permitted to install motors for pumping the water to the overhead tanks. To add to their woes, there are no washrooms on the ground floors of the duplex government houses, and there is no water on the first floor. Senior citizens with health issues, who require frequent access to washroom, face an uphill task of climbing stairs for using them.

“Keeping in view the neighbours’ water requirement, we do not use the motor installed at our home. We store the water in buckets every morning and carry it to the first and second floors when needed,” said

Amit Kumar Shingari

, a resident.