Toilets without water, seniors flush with anger

Chandigarh: Kamla Devi, a senior citizen from Sector 51, has a peculiar problem. Relatives keep cancelling their plans to visit her on weekends. “I know their difficulty,” she says: “How can I complain, when I know I don’t have water even for my own needs.”
With no water in lavatories, senior citizens are at most discomfort, since they use toilet frequently.This is not the story of Sector 51 alone. Many other areas as well are short of water supply due to the failure of the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh to pre-empt the situation. The lack of preparation has affected daily life the most in areas such as Sector 51.
The residents at one of these housing societies said the civic authorities had fail to provide the area with this basic service, and now they had to make own arrangements. The water supply to the housing societies is limited. On the top floor, it runs out as early as 5am. Even the limited water that people get is muddy and unsuitable not only drinking but also cooking and washing.
The residents of the Sector-51 housing societies have to innovate to make up for the shortage. At India Enclave, a housing society of senior citizens mostly, they have minimised the flush cistern capacity to reduce the wastage of water. They have now connected tank water instead of tap water to their RO (reverse osmosis) filters. In New Light society, the underground reservoir is exploited to the fullest, to satisfy the demand of the upper-floor residents.
Another issue is the faulty power back-up at the water boosting station, It is a nightmare to the residents of Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) flats in Sector 51. They say that a power cuts in the area means no water supply for several hours. For almost eight months, residents have been complaining to the department concerned and the area councillor, without any effect.
‘Trickle at dawn, nothing at dusk’
The quality of water is very poor. The supply has been close to negligible in the past four days. During power cut, the housing board flats lose their water supply as well
Kesar Singh | RWA president, CHB Complex, Category 2
Someone in my family had knee replacement recently and the relatives coming over see this member found no water in the lavatory. Senior citizens faced a lot of discomfort
A K Mandal | RWA president, India Enclave
Keep a bucket of tap water next to a bucket of filtered water, just to know the amount of dirt in the former sample. The water pressure is low, even on the lowest floor
Jaspinder Kaur Suri | India Enclave resident
We lift water from an underground reservoir to upper floors for four hours daily. Still it remains insufficient. The summer’s not yet at its peak. It’s going to get worse
J N Sharma | RWA president, New Light Co-operative Society
The water supply hours have shortened considerably at the onset of summer. Top floors hardly get any water after 8am. Our overhead tanks never get filled to capacity
Raisingh Chauhan | RWA chairman, CHB Complex
We get water only from 5am to 7.30am. There is no supply in the evening. The water we receive in the taps is impure and its quality needs to be improved a lot
A C Gogia | India Enclave resident
Plug the leaks, inspect the lines
Summer is on and, as usual, the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh is out with its dos and don’ts for saving water. The fine for misusing potable water is now Rs 2,000. The city has water crisis even though it has enough supply. The situation is tough becane the demand is disprportionate to the supply.
The MC received two first prizes from the Union Ministry of Urban Development for giving 332 litres of water each day to every one of the city’s 12 lakh people, which has the highest per-capita water cosumption in the country. As the demand has increased with population, the UT Administration has started a project to source 40 million gallons a day (MGD) of water from Kajauli, which will be shared with Mohali and Panchkula.
Of the 3,915 lakh litres of water the city gets each deay, a report says it leaks 1,032 lakh litres through ruptured pipes. This wastage is about 26% of the total availability of water and way more than the prescribed limit of 11%. This is enough water to serve the needs of more than 50,000 houses.
We need a patrol squad for regular detection and plugging of leaking pipelines and fire hydrants at roadsides, parks, markets, and slums. Instead of ruthless fines, use these teams to control water wastage. Hold seminars and meetings to make residents aware of the need to conserve water. Involve resident welfare associations (RWAs) in the campaign.
Harvest rainwater, which our councillors also recommended after their Chennai visit sometime ago. If we plug the leakage, there will be sufficient water for all residents.
S K Khosla | Sector 40C, Chandigarh