The tank in Bistupur which supplies water to Jugsalai area. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, April 27: Quenching thirst is a risky affair for the residents of Jugsalai. Despite paying the civic body for potable water, about 50,000 residents of the area have to make do with inadequately treated water. Reason: lack of water treatment plant.

The Adityapur circle of Drinking Water and Sanitation Department (DWSD), a state government agency, supplies water to the Jugsalai area. Ironically, it has no treatment plant at its disposal.

?We get water from a pond on the Tata Steel Works premises. There is no treatment plant. We treat the water with alum, bleaching powder and lime. The water is not suitable for drinking. It can be used for washing clothes and other household works, though,? said DWSD's junior engineer Arshad Ali.

The DWSD officials know that the water supplied to over 5,000 households of Jugsalai is ?unfit for drinking?. But the residents of the locality are either ignorant about the source of water and its treatment or have no other source of drinking water.

There is an ambiguity in the version of DWSD officials and their Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (Jusco) counterparts on the nature of water DWSD draws from the pond.

While the DWSD officials claim the water is of waste category and comes out from the Tata Steel Works after cooling the finished iron rods, Jusco officials maintain it is raw water of river Subernarekha.

The Jugsalai municipality charges the local residents Rs 5 per tap per month for supplying drinking water. Rates are different for supplying water to commercial units, which are few in number. Officially, there are over 4,000 tap connections in the area.

DWSD junior engineer (civil) Arshad Ali claims that the department rarely issues notices to local residents about the quality of water, which is fit for washing clothes and other domestic work, but not for drinking. The department ?assumes? that the local residents know that the water is unfit for consumption.

The DWSD officials claim that they have made seven deep borings and installed over 150 tubewells in the locality.

The residents of the locality drinking the tap water, however, said the alternative arrangements are not enough to meet the daily requirement of drinking water in the area.

?Several tubewells remain defunct throughout the year. In summers, the situation worsens with depleting underground water-level,? said Sumit Rampuriar of Jugsalai main market area.