City residents paying through nose for water

After contractors bored down to half the specified depth, PHE department washes hands off water project

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, Oct 3: During the dry season – from January to April – the monthly budget of the residents of Borbari area shoots up. They have to shell out an additiol Rs 1,200 every month to buy water, as the wells in their compounds dry up.

The residents had heaved a sigh of relief in 2010 when local MLA Akon Bora iugurated the Hengerabari Hill Town Water Supply Scheme. But their joy was short-lived.

Within a year of iuguration, the water supply project virtually collapsed.

The number of residents getting water supply from the project went on declining.

Today, only a handful of residents get water from the project – all in the vicinity of the project site located at Milagar.

“For about a year we got running water from the project. However, the flow to our homes stopped all of a sudden. Our taps went dry. On asking about the reason, we came to know from those involved with the project that the boring of the project was around half the depth envisaged in the project specification. Now, we have to bear the brunt for the negligence on the part of the administration. What else can we hope from such a government?” rued a resident of the locality. 

So during the lean season, as the wells in the Borbari area dry out, its hapless residents have to shell out exorbitant rates for potable drinking water.

Sources said that the borewell of the project should have been 1,500 feet. But the contractor violated the guidelines, reducing the depth to 750 metres.

Worse, there are reports of encroachment within the project site now. Most of the pipes installed for supplying water to the residents have been damaged with no measures taken to either repair or replace them.

The PHE department has literally washed its hands off the project that was worth lakhs of rupees. It is learnt that the department is now contemplating on a fresh scheme in the area.

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