Water woes unite slums and swanky high rises

KOLKATA: In this poll season, water - or lack of it - has become a major issue to impact the ballot battle. While Trinamool Congress is banking on promises to supply filtered water to every doorstep, the opposition has pulled out all the stops and attacked the ruling party for failing to live up to the promises made over last five years. A TOI survey across Kolkata, however, revealed that the claim of water crisis was not unfounded.From CM's home turf in Bhowanipore to various slums, the scarcity has left the city wanting for more.
The crisis in Harish Mukherjee Road sums it all. Local resident Amritesh Chakraborty, for example, takes a break from his Lansdowne office at noon every day to go home and put a water jar in the long, serpentine queue to get filtered water from the roadside tap. He is among 500 neighbours who battles it out every noon for a couple of buckets.
"If I miss the opportunity for even one day, my family has to go without water for a whole day. Residents in our area are suffering extreme shortage this summer," Chakraborty complained.
With temperature soaring, reports of water crisis have been reaching the KMC headquarters from across the city. Some of the worst areas include Park Circus, Jadavpur, Behala, Garia and Metiabruz, among other areas. Almost all the slums in central Kolkata are left in the lurch as well, conceded a Trinamool Congress councillor in Park Circus area.
The situation is not encouraging in some of the posh localities as well. In Sarat Bose Road, residents are battling water crisis for several months now. It doesn't matter that the residents here pay highest taxes. At Mohini Apartment, a six-storied residential building near Beltala, water shortage started last August and has persisted since. "We have been residing here for over 26 years and had never experienced the crisis till last year. Water pressure has dipped alarmingly. Over the past several months, we are getting only a quarter of the supply. With the day's supply exhausted in eight-nine hours, we have to purchase water every four days," said Ila Khara, one of the 40 residents in the building.
Officials in the KMC water supply department conceded that the demand for water tankers has shot up in past one month. "We have been sending water tankers to areas depending on the severity of crisis. People in large numbers have been regularly requesting for such tankers from areas across the city, especially from added areas like Jadavpur, Behala and Metiabruz."
"A probe by our team of officials has revealed that in some dry pockets, a section of highrise residents have been regularly tapping water from the pipeline by using submersible pumps. We have seized some pumps and are on the lookout for more such pumps," said a senior KMC water supply department official. He claimed that additional water was being supplied from Palta and Garden Reach treatment plants.