Gurgaon water crisis Day 7: Wastage will invite FIR

With the water crisis entering its seventh day, the district administration on Saturday issued a notification that FIRs will be registered against residents caught wasting water by washing vehicles or gardening.

On Saturday, the price of private water tankers increased to `2,000 for 5,000 litres against the normal rate of `500. The price increased fourfold as several private water tanker operators refused to supply.

The situation is expected to remain critical for four more days as the raw water supply to the treatment plants in Gurgaon is still short by 60% .

“Money is not everything when you are in crisis. Here, everyone is ready to pay any amount for water. But, the private tankers are refusing to supply,” Sangeeta Joshi of DLF Phase 3 said.

The city is facing this crisis after protesters demanding reservation for Jats damaged parts of the Gurgaon water channel in Jhajjar district. Besides, the carrying capacity of both the Gurgaon and NCR water channels that supply raw water to the city has reduced because of silt and grass.

Residents complained that the water pressure was so low that motors could not pump it to the overhead tanks.

“We have had little supply since Sunday. We get water only for 20 minutes a day and the pressure is low. Also, we are not getting water from private tankers and the Municipal Corporation of Gurgaon because of the high demand. We are paying `2,000 for 5,000 litres of water which used to cost `500,” Rina Chaturvedi of DLF Phase 2 said.

The Basai plant received about 35 millions of gallons per day (MGD) raw water supply on Saturday but released only 20 MGD. “Today (Saturday) we will not be able to provide more water. We have used the stock and are left with no water now. People will face problems for three to four days,” Subhas Piplani, sub-divisional officer of the Huda, said.

Piplani added that the irrigation department was cleaning the NCR water channel at Rohad village, 30 kilometres from the city, and at Matan village, 38 kilometres from the city. The irrigation department has deployed two machines at both these villages that are in Jhajjar district. These two machines can clear 1 kilometre per day at the rate of 50 metres per hour per machine. At least 10 kilometres of the channel has to be cleaned.

The NCR water channel has a higher carrying capacity and the authorities are trying to resume supply through the channel as soon as possible.