Pithoragarh, Champawat districts reel under drinking water crisis as people protest
Pithoragarh, Champawat districts reel under drinking water crisis as people protest
B.D.Kasniyal
Pithoragarh, June 20
Facing acute drinking water crisis,the residents of Pithoragarh and Champawat districts, are agitating demanding regular supply of drinking water, as over 1.5 lakh population of these growing towns is getting irregular drinking water supply.
Champawat town is also in the grip of severe drinking water crisis as against a total requirement of 2.5 MLD water daily, the town is getting only 1.5 MLD water in these summer months.
“When the Quirala pumping scheme was commissioned in the year 2022, it was claimed that the Champawat town will have to sufficient water supply throughout the year but still the town is facing water crisis as most of the natural sources have dried this summer as temperatures have soared to record level this year,” said Dinesh Pandey, a local journalist
In Almora the main source of drinking water supply, Matela pumping scheme is supplying only seven MLD water despite the daily need of 13 MLD water of the town. ” We are distributing drinking water in town and surroundings villages by 16 tankers from last 3 months to meet the challenge of water crisis in Almora town,” said A.K. Soni, a Jal Sansthan engineer
The people of Pithoragarh are also protesting against deepening drinking water crisis. “The people have decided not to pay water bills for the months of May and June as the people did not get drinking water in these days,” said Mohan Chandra Bhatt, president of Bar Association, Pithoragarh, who along with other leaders today met the District Magistrate and complained of water shortage in the town. “These days, half of the town or 1.5 lakh of population is not getting drinking water on regular basis while half of population has not got it from last one week,” said Bhatt.
Govind Singh Mahar, a senior BJP leader and convenor of ‘Jag Utha Pahar’, a social orgnisation active towards solution of basic problems of common people. “We have decided to submit a memorandum to Chief Minister in this connection, during his stay in Pithoragarh on June 22,” said Mahar.
According to Jal Sansthan officials, the town needs a total of 12.89 MLD water during summer months but it is getting only 7.25 MLD these days “We have total 5 pumping and 1, gravity scheme to feed drinking water to the town but due to drying up of drinking resources and some technical reasons, the supply of drinking water gone down,” said Suresh Joshi, executive engineer of Jal Sansthan, Pithoragarh.
According to Joshi, the biggest drinking water project from Awalaghat is worth 7 MLD scheme but it is giving only 3.15.MLD water, out of 7 MLD drawing capacity due to absence of water treatment at the lifting site of the scheme. “ We are getting only 3.15 MLD water as out of 3 wells, 2 wells are not lifting the water,” said Suresh Joshi.
The Sansthan officer said that due to lack of Water Treatment Plant (WTP) at base site of Awalaghat project, 2 wells cannot pump water as the water cannot be filtered.”Had the WTP been installed in place of wells, we could have pumped water from there that would have supplied additional water at the time of crisis,” said Joshi.
The Executive Engineer has said that due to damaged pipe lines in the 3 MLD capacity Ghat scheme, the water is not lifting in full capacity.”The scheme was constructed in 1979 and the pipeline has been damaged due to construction of all weather road construction, further affecting water supply from Ghat lifting scheme,” said the Jal Sansthan officer.
