Poor supply worries rich in Steel City

Rourkela: The crisis of water supply in the Steel City has touched its zenith with some of the posh residential areas like Koel Nagar and Shakti Nagar depending on emergency water tankers.
According to sources, the water level of Koel river has gone down alarmingly, making it impossible for authorities to supply piped water to these colonies of the city.
"As the water level of Koel has decreased alarmingly and there is hardly any water in our intake well, we have not been able to pump water to the houses of Koel Nagar and Shakti Nagar area of the city," said A K Patel, Public Health Engineering Department executive engineer, Rourkela.
Long queues were noticed in these two colonies, as PHED tried to refill hundreds of water tankers deployed in the residential areas.
"We have installed 1,000 litre tankers and filling up the same at regular interval to meet the requirements of these localities," Patel said. "We have no other alternative but to continue this process till the water level in Koel increases to a significant level," Patel added.
The sector areas of Rourkela, which had witnessed deep water crisis, since these areas also depend on river Koel, has been managing the crisis with several initiatives of the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP).
The RSP dus several deep bore wells at strategic locations and excavated its intake well to store more water. It also increased the range of the water pumps.