Villagers trek with water pots from a stream in Barkatha on Tuesday. (Vishvendu Jaipuriar)

Hazaribagh town will plunge into an acute water crisis if monsoon does not arrive on time.

As the situation stands now, the residents will get supply till the end of May with the water level at Charwa dam, the primary source of drinking water for this parched township, dipping to 15 feet.

Although the drinking water and sanitation department (DW&SD) foresees no imminent threat to regular water supply till May-end, they are drawing up alternative plans to avert a crisis in the coming months.

“All is well now. The available water at Charwa dam will last till the end of this month if we stick to the existing system of supply — twice a day. We are supplying 12 lakh gallons of water everyday through seven water towers to feed around four lakh people in the town,” DW&SD executive engineer Narmadeshwar Tiwary said.

Another tower draws 50,000 gallons from Hazaribagh Lake, feeding one lakh people. “However, if monsoon does not arrive in June, water scarcity will hit the town,” Tiwary added.

Deputy commissioner Manish Ranjan has, therefore, instructed the officials to repair all defunct hand pumps in the town. Four teams have been constituted to look after proper functioning of 160 hand pumps and 32 deep wells.

Further, the Hazaribagh municipal board has 34 water tankers, out of which five are under repairs. Board officials claimed that collective capacity of the 29 tankers was sufficient enough to supply boring water to all 32 wards, in case of shortage of supply from the water towers.

The residents, however, are not at all pleased with the stopgap measures. “Unless the board makes efforts to come up with an alternate reservoir, the entire district will reel under water crisis in the coming days,” a resident said.

For 10 years, denizens of Hazaribagh have been pressing for water supply from Konar dam, merely 70km from the district headquarters. A detailed project report was also prepared, but it was flawed and was returned to the consultant on May 18.

However, compared to urban areas, the situation is worse in rural areas. Women have to walk several kilometres to fetch water from natural sources like river, streams et al.

If the district administration fails to make some alternative arrangement, the town will face a similar crisis.