Fountains of water woes for city

Rajinder Nagarkoti

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 25

While city residents are reeling under a water crisis, around 40 fountains (big and small) in various gardens, green belts and other parts of the city, which come within the purview of the Municipal Corporation, are getting potable water supply.

Instead of tertiary-treated water, the MC is feeding these fountains with potable water.

In 2012, the MC water supply and sanitation committee had decided to use tertiary-treated water in these fountains instead of potable water. However, the MC has failed to implement the decision.

Sources said due to poor quality of tertiary-treated water, MC officials and councillors were against the use of tertiary-treated water in fountains. As this water is not being used in fountains, questions are now being raised over the expenditure of crores of rupees on the tertiary-treated water project.

Surprisingly, the MC has spent over Rs 15 crore on a project to supply tertiary-treated water to houses measuring one kanal and above in various sectors and green belts. However, the MC has found few takers among residents for new connections. Though there are more than 5,000 such houses, owners of only 700 houses have applied for these connections during the past four years.

MC fails to plug leakage

MC officials claimed that nearly 25 per cent of the total drinking water was wasted every day due to leakage in pipelines, which had not been changed for the past few decades. Of the 87 MGD water that the city receives every day, around 20 to 22 MGD is wasted due to leakage.

Ill-maintained fountains

After having spent crores of rupees on the installation of fountains in different parts of the city, the authorities seem to be paying scant regard to the maintenance of these. A number of fountains are not working properly or have stopped functioning. While in some cases, fountain parts have been stolen, others face a problem in their water supply systems.

No arrangements to meet demand and supply gap

The city receives 87 MGD (million gallons per day) of water against the peak-time requirement of 116 MGD. Of it, 67 MGD comes from the Kajauli waterworks (Phases I, II, III and IV) while the remaining 20 MGD is generated through 207 tubewells. The demand has already touched 95 to 100 MGD against the availability 87 MGD. This year, the Chandigarh MC has not made any special arrangements to meet the demand and supply gap.

Criminal wastage, says committee chief

The MC water supply and sanitation committee had recently proposed to shut the water supply to fountains in the city or use tertiary-treated water in these. I will take up the issue with MC officials as using potable water in fountains is criminal wastage. — Satinder Singh, 

Councillor & chairman of the committee 

In 2012, the committee had proposed to use tertiary-treated water in fountains, but to no avail. If the quality of tertiary-treated water is so bad, a probe should be conducted by an independent agency on wasteful expenditure of over Rs 15 crore on the tertiary-treated water project. — Mukesh Bassi, 

councillor and former chairman of committee 

The MC will explore the suggestions given by members of the water supply and sanitation committee. — Mukesh Anand, MC chief engineer