More than two lakh residents of Jharia are facing an acute water crisis for the last one week due to burning of two pumps of intake well of water supply complex at Jamadoba in Jharia. The hyacinth from the Damodar river entered the pumps which has lead to this incident.

Worst affected are the residents of Mishra para, Poddar para, Koiri Bandh, Rajmata Colony, Upper Rajbari locality, Upper Kulhi, Chothai Kulhi, etc. who are getting partial water supply since last three days after the repair of one of the pump.

Expressing disgust over the situation, Anup Sao, a resident of Koiri Bandh locality of Dhanbad said, “The water supply was completely disrupted for three days in our locality since December 9 and though partial resumption of the water supply has been carried out since December 12 due to lesser pressure of water in pipeline water supply has not resumed in some localities like Mishra Para situated on slightly higher altitude.”

“We can’t understand the reason for not providing a permanent fix of the problem. Instead, they are making stop-gap arrangements for water supply and the situation is continuing for more than five-six years when water supply was disrupted on one of the other pretexts like leakage in the pipeline, technical fault in motors or pumps at Jamadoba based water treatment plant, etc.” added Sao.

Narayan Chail, a restaurant owner of the taxi stand locality of Jharia said, “We need a huge quantity of water in our restaurant both for cooking food and dishwashing but the irregular water supply is incurring extra cost as we have to purchase water from vendors and affecting our profit to a great extent.”

President of Jharia Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Amit Sahu alias Dipu Sahu who also owns a lodge, Sahu lodge in Shiv Mandir road locality of Jharia said, “Our business is also getting affected due to irregular water supply as we need the regular water supply for inmates in all the rooms and thus had to primarily depend on groundwater for bathing purpose, etc.”

“Why can’t the old pipelines and the age-old equipment like motor, pumps installed at Jamadoba based water treatment plant situated on the bank of river Damodar be replaced with a new one as the old machineries installed more than 50 years ago and developed regular technical snag affecting water supply?” questioned Sahu.

When contacted Indresh Shukla, executive engineer cum technical member of civic body Jharkhand Mineral Area Development Authority (JMADA), he said, “We have repaired one of the two pumps three days ago while the remaining one pump of intake well at Jamadoba has also been repaired last night.”

“Work for laying of new pipeline as well replacement of old machineries at Jamadoba based water treatment plant has also resumed as part of a comprehensive project worth Rs 316 crore but it will take around 18 months to show benefit as the project is at its initial stage,” added Shukla.

JMADA supplies more than 176 lakh liters of river Damodar water through its Jamadoba based water treatment complex to Jharia and Katras out of which around 105 lakh liters of water is supplied to Jharia and adjoining areas through a 12 million gallon per day capacity WTP while remaining around 71 lakh liters is supplied to Kendua, Putki, Moonidih and other areas of Katras.