Erratic power supply to Basai plant leads to water shortage in DLF areas

Thousands of residents have been hit by water shortage over the last four days due to power fluctuations at the Basai treatment plant, which supplies water to the city.

Nearly 30 per cent residents, especially in upscale localities, are reeling from the shortage, residents’ welfare associations said.

Against a requirement of 20 million gallons of water per day (MGD) in the areas of DLF (Phases I-IV), Nirvana Country, Sushant Lok-I, South City-II, sectors 49, 50 and Old Gurgaon, only 2 MGD is being supplied currently.

Civic agencies have increased its fleet of tankers to meet the shortfall -- 15 tankers were catering to these areas and the number has been increased to 20.

But residents say the 20 tankers cannot meet the demands of 50,000 families across the four DLF phases. “The tankers cannot meet the increasing demand in all areas,” said Sheetal Hooda of DLF City Phase-2.

The Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda) has installed a special power system to reduce outages at the Basai plant, which supplies 55 MGD of water to Gurgaon.

The Basai plant gets Yamuna water from Kakroi village in Sonepat through the Gurgaon Water Channel, which is now more than 20 years old and is in bad shape.

A 4-km stretch between Mundakhera and Chandu village is the worst. As this part of the canal cannot withstand the pressure if full flow is ensured, the canal irrigation officials are releasing only 70 per cent of the water that the channel is meant to carry.

Despite a letter by Huda to Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam (DHBVN) regarding the erratic power supply to Basai plant, the situation has not improved.

There is fluctuation every five minutes due to which the filling stations do not operate.

HUDA officials said they are dependent on the DHBVN power and, if there is any loadshedding, supply will be affected.

Due to low voltage at Basai Water treatment plant since May 11, the required motors are not running. Due to this, supply to master pipeline, feeding the boosting station in Sector-16, has been affected. Water is supplied to DLF Cyber City, sectors 14, 17, 18 and MG Road from this station.

“We have requested the restoration of the required voltage continuously to ensure proper water supply,” a Huda official said.

“Our supply from HUDA has reduced to half over the past few weeks. Earlier, we received 10 lakh litres of water daily, now the supply is merely four lakh litres,” said Sanu Kapila, president, Nirvana RWA.

“We have complained several times -- even called the MCG/DHVBN and DC several times -- and followed up regularly, but there has been no response,” said Sapna Sarraf of South City-1.

“None of the authorities is bothered about our condition. Getting water is our right and we are not getting it,” Anushka Khanna, a resident, said.