Snowmelt water from rooftops emerges saviour

Kuldeep chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla, January 10

An unpredicted heavy spell of snow laid bare all blatant lies of the disaster management authority last Saturday. Each and every drop of water trickling down from the melting snow collected on rooftops of houses has turned out to be a saviour for residents here as million dollar government machinery failed to restore electricity and water even after four days till late evening in this state capital.

If last year it was the jaundice outbreak triggered by the contamination of Ashwani khud water sources that shocked the capital city in December- January this time it is a complete collapse of the government’s water and electricity machinery and MeT office in the wake of the snowfall that has added to the misery of residents.

As government machinery failed to deliver, residents resorted to traditional ways of meeting the water crisis in most of the 34 municipal wards in the capital city. They tried to harvest each and very precious drop water from the snow melting at the rooftops to meet their daily needs.

“We bucketed snow water to survive”, said an elderly housewife here.

From toilets to kitchen, snowmelt water was used not only by labourers and common man in the city reeling under water and electricity crisis for the last four days as all stocks of water ran dry. “We are collecting water from the rooftops for use”, said Rajmani and Hiramani, the two labourers from Bihar.

Packaged water companies did brisk business as demand for the bottled water soared many times following the water crisis. Hoteliers procured private tankers to meet the demands of the tourists that continue to pour in from across the region for witnessing snowfall in the queen of the hills that stretched limited supply of water and electricity to limits, adding to the crisis. Only 20 MLD Guma water scheme was operational for the last three days providing water in the city.

State electricity board claimed that they had restored electricity in most parts of the city and pumping house of Giri and Koti- Barandi. “The pumping will begin soon and we hope to normalize the water supply in a day of two”, said Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan.