Jal Board blames it on poor power supply and calamities

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 21: The Guwahati Jal Board (GJB) has passed the buck on idequate power supply and tural calamities for the erratic water supply in Guwahati.

Guwahati Jal Board supplies water to around 7,200 consumers of RG Baruah Road, Hengrabari, Borbari, Christian Basti, Rupgar, Sorumotoria, Jotiya etc., areas in the city. The consumers get water once, either in morning or the afternoon or in the evening.

Consumers complained that the there has been short supply of water from Jal Board for past few months and they have been buying water from other sources. There are also allegations of some people using motor pumps to get more water, thereby depriving others.

Jal Board officials admitted that they have caught around 300 people involved in such acts. They said that the pipes that are used to extract raw water are around 30-year old. Continuous requirement of repair of these pipes is the prime reason for idequate supply of water to the citizens. They are further of the view that storms in the past few weeks have aggravated the problem.

“When there is power shutdown in the Saatpukhuri plant we lose around 5 lakh litres of water. If the water level of Brahmaputra rises we have to relocate the barge to other places due to which all systems and pumps are shut down,” an official said.

The treatment capacity of Jal Board is 12.8 MLD. It is currently treating around 7.8 MLD water per day. It is learnt that the Jal Board has stopped giving new connections due to uvailability of treated water.

 However, consumers laugh the board’s reasons away. “They have been continuously citing the same reasons behind idequate water supply for years. It is high time that the government took permanent steps to address such nefarious problems,” a resident said.