Jal Sansthan warns of drier summers

LUCKNOWITES SEEM to be heading for a thirsty summer as the State government has not responded to Jal Sansthan warnings.

With the rise in mercury, people in old city areas have started complaining about scarcity of potable water. Chowk, Thakurganj, Napier Road, Tehseenganj, Moulviganj, Birhana, Rakabganj, Mshakganj people are purchasing water from private tankers or collecting it from their taps in the mid night. In the rush, they have to brave the problem of rotten pipelines, defunct tubewells, out-of-order handpumps, dirty water supply promoting the spread of epidemics in the old city areas.

To save Lucknowites from the danger of thirsty summers, Jal Sansthan had submitted a plan of Rs 7.79 crore  to the government. Sansthan authorities had sought money from the government for the repair; re-boring and installation of new tube wells, handpumps and pyaus. The plan also proposed the cleaning of 60 overhead water tanks to keep away the risk of epidemics in the old city areas.

State government has once again cold shouldered the Sansthan Proposal which has posed a threat of  dry summers for the Lucknowites. 

“We require the amount for the repair of 1100 handpumps, 15 tubewells, cleaning of 60 overhead tanks, servicing of 410 tubewells and installation of 8 new tube wells in the city” says general manager Jal Sansthan RK Tripathi. 

“We want to avoid the scenes like people demonstrating in front of our offices that’s why have to repair all these things before the summers, neither it would be too late,” he says.

Jal Sansthan is always blamed for not planning in advance for the summers. “But, now when we have planned for summers , we need government’s support the government,” he says.

In absence of funds  Zonal water reservoir built in Rajajipuram having the capacity of 4 million litres, sufficient to quench the thirst of 50,000 people per day is still not operational.

Besides that the plan of joining the zonal pumping stations of KKC and Aishbagh is still not on. If these two pumping stations would have been connected then  the water problems in the areas like AP Sen Road, Pan Dariba, Latouche Road, Aminabad, Ganeshganj and Lal Kuan would have been solved.

The ambitious project of Jal Sansthan for the automatic centralized control of its tube wells is  still suffering. The plan of   controlling  all the tube wells in the city from a single place , and reduce its maintenance cost is still a distant dream for Jal Sansthan.