Leaves cancelled over water crisis in Gaya

Gaya: Gaya district magistrate (DM) Abhishekh Singh has ordered cancellation of leave of all engineers of the Gaya Municipal Corporation and the Public Health and Engineering Department, virtually pressing the panic button in view of the deepening water crisis. The leave cancellation order will remain effective till May 31.

The drastic step follows a thorough review of the water problem in the district in general and Gaya town in particular. During the review, it was revealed that leakages at several points in water supply pipelines have added to the scarcity, as besides water going waste through leakages, the pressure too gets significantly reduced thereby causing supply bottleneck.

To the surprise of the DM, leakages could not be plugged despite the presence of several engineers at the Dandibagh water supply station. The DM was informed that an executive engineer, two assistant engineers and nine junior engineers were deputed to the Dandibagh water supply station.

According to official records, water to Gaya town was supplied through 52 sources. Forty-five of the sources are controlled by Gaya Municipal Corporation and the remaining seven by the state government’s public health and engineering department.

In the action taken report, concerned officials told the DM that two pumping machines of 50 HP capacity each were recently installed at Dandibagh and one more of 75 HP capacity would be installed in the coming few weeks.

Tapping water illegally from tower-bound pipes has been identified as one of the major areas of concern. The DM directed officials to come down heavily on people drawing water directly from the rising pipes.

On the point of illegal water connections, the DM directed officials either to regularise or disconnect such water supply. It was also revealed at the meet that water was being supplied through tankers at 24 points.

According to Lalji Prasad, a former member of the standing committee of the Gaya Municipal Corporation, managerial deficiency has aggravated the situation. The officials act only under compulsion and fear of water riots, Prasad said.

“No advance measures are taken to prevent the crisis summer after summer. The crisis this summer has become more acute on account of there being no winter rains in 2017-18. On an average, the district receives 5, 20, 25 and 11 mm rainfall in December, January, February and March respectively. But there was no rainfall this year,” Prasad said.

Courtesy: The Telegraph