The rising mercury in the city has resulted in Salt Lake water supply taking a hit as several residents said that the quantity of water that they usually get has gone down marginally.
A resident of CF Block said that water supply in their house had come down on at least three occasions in the past week and they had to source water from private water tankers in order to fill up the house’s overhead tank. “On Friday and Sunday, I had to purchase water from private water tankers as there had been some issue in supply. The water tank in our house had got only half-filled,” said Kamal Agarwal, a resident of CF Block who stays in a three-storeyed house alongwith his two brothers and their respective families.
A senior official of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation’s water supply department said that with temperatures reaching nearly 40ºC the demand for water has gone up considerably. “We supply filtered water to Salt Lake homes. However this same water is used to wash multiple cars, driveways as well as watering plants and gardens that many homes have. This is wasting a lot of water and hence although the supply has remained the same on an average, residents have begun to feel that the supply is not adequate,” the official said.
On being told that several residents were sourcing water from private tankers operated by the Salt Lake Sanskritik Sansad and other suppliers, the official said that it was the result of the changing residential demography of the township where now several houses are now accommodating upto 20 members.
Several blocks in Salt Lake are witnessing a construction boom where single and two storey houses are being razed and newer structures with at least three floors are being erected. In some, there are provisions for rooftop swimming pools and gardens as well.
However, water crisis in summer is not new to the township.
Salt Lake needs around 15 million gallons of water every day. Earlier, the Tallah-Palta network used to supply around eight million gallons (MGD). Now, the township gets around 10-12 MGD from the New Town water treatment plant, while the rest is augmented by using groundwater supply.
Fire at Tank 4 pumphouse
On Saturday, however, water supply did take a hit and affected a few blocks in Wards 31 and 41 as a fire had broken out inside the pump house of water tank number 4 near the Lake Town footbridge.
A water supply department official said that the power line feeding the pumps of the water tank had burst into flames at around 4am on Saturday and two fire engines brought the fire under control within 30 minutes.
“The pumps however had been rendered inoperative due to the fire and we had to arrange for alternative measures to restore water supply. However we could do so within the day and it didn’t take us much time,” the official added.
