Rainfall may save PHED ₹20cr for Pali water supply

Jaipur: For the public health and engineering department (PHED), good rainfall in the state does not only mean availability of water. Following the ‘more than average’ rainfall in the state, the department is all set to save no less than Rs 1.5 crore on water supply. That too, for supplying water to only one district.During the summer of 2022, following a huge water crisis in Pali district, PHED officials were compelled to send water to Pali from Jodhpur by train spending a whopping Rs 1.54 crore. Thanks to the rainfall this year, PHED officials are hopeful that the present water level is sufficient to cater to the needs of the district at least till next summer.“Last month, the water level in the Jawai dam was 45.65 feet whereas it was merely 20 feet last year after the monsoon. We are hopeful that the present water level in the dam would help us to sustain at least till next summer,” Manish Mathur, senior engineer (project), Pali, said. Since April 17, 2022, PHED and North Western Railway jointly supplied 32 crore litre of drinking water from Bhagat ki Kothi railway station to Pali station on 950 water train services. The government had released Rs 19.64 crore for this operation from State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).PHED officials stated that their major concern is to use the present water available in the Jawai Dam rationally so than it can sustain till next summer.“For this a committee has been formed under the leadership of PHED regional commissioner. The main responsibility of this committee is to fix the supply of water for drinking and irrigation purpose rationally so that water wastage is minimum. If everything goes fine, we won’t need to transfer water on train next summer,” added Mathur.