PHE blames PDD for the present mess

Water crisis hits Jammu, pumping stations, filtration plants working below their capacity

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, July 05: Summer for Jammu brings unwanted woes of water shortage. And when the power cuts become routine, a large paraphernalia and manpower wielded by the Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department fails to meet the demands of citizens.

The power crisis which has hit the city has affected the functioning of PHE to run its heavy motors which lift the water from various sources leading to virtual drinking water shortage in the city and its outskirts.

Much of the PHE infrastructure remain shut for hours together in view of long duration and frequent power cuts. Senior officers from the PHE said that though most of the tubewells and lifting station at Sittle and Boria filtration plant was working below their normal capacity at the moment.

The city areas like Jeevan Nagar, Roop Nagar, Janipur, Indira Colony, Buta Nagar, Naseeb Nagar, Ploura, Durga Nagar, Muthi, Ban Talab, New Plots, Sainik Colony, Bathindi, Sunjwan, Narwal and Greater Kailash are reeling under water shortage. Many areas get water supply just once a day and that too not for sufficient prescribed time period.

As per the data, department was presently providing nearly 43.5 MGD of water per day to the population of over 13 lakhs in Jammu city. The net requirement of potable water against this population is 45.5 MGD of water per day. So, 2 MGDs of water shortage was still there.

Sham Sharma a resident of old city said we are not getting sufficient water supply on time, as the utilization of water is more in summer then in winters.

Sunita Gupta a resident of Shastri Nagar said every year during summer, people of Jammu suffer from the problem of shortage of water and power, but the state government is not doing anything to redress this issue”.

“We are facing water and electricity crises for the past one week. Life without water in this hot summer is slow death for us” said another local.

When contacted Chief Engineer PHE K K Gupta said that the total consumption on daily basis is 45.5 MGD out of which the department is providing 43.5 MGD water when there is smooth power supply across the city.

Gupta further said that due to the power cuts and low voltage the department is unable to provide the water on time but our team is on work to supply the water as soon as the electricity get connected.

Whereas, Chief Engineer PDD, Shahnaz Goni could not be contacted for her version even after repeating attempts.