Water crisis has reared its ugly head in summer-bound Ranchi, with more than 100,000 people in worst-hit Hindpiri finding it almost impossible to cope with kitchen and sanitation needs.
Civic guardian RMC plans to address the growing grievances with more tankers and tube wells, but the promises are ringing hollow for citizens whose life currently revolves around bucket queues.
"All public bore wells have become defunct while wells have dried up. Add to these the unpredictable and unreliable supply of water through pipelines. I fear, someday, you will hear about violent water clashes in Hindpiri," Anwar, a resident of Second Street, told The Telegraph.
Zinat Kaushar of Hindpiri Central Street couldn't agree more. "For a month now, our area is receiving piped water only thrice a week. Water is supplied for an hour or even less, and the pressure is so low that it hardly fills a bucket. We are a joint family of 25 people. Often we don't have water for bathing. Sometimes, the piped supply is too muddy to use. Children are forced to go to school without taking a bath," said the homemaker.
The crisis has acquired alarming proportions at Nizam Nagar, yet another Hindpiri pocket.
"First, there is no regular water supply. Second, there is no fixed timing of supply. A sizeable population in this area depends on the public tap. Everyone has to remain alert because they know that if they miss filling up buckets, they will have no water for two more days until the next supply. But, the catch is, water is often supplied around 2am without notice," said Md Aslam, a local resident.
And, who benefits from this unannounced supply?
"Hoteliers, of course!" pipes in college student Md Miraj. According to him, while common people are kept in the dark about the supply timing, paid insiders in the RMC or the drinking water and sanitation department dutifully inform hoteliers who need water in large quantities to run their businesses.
The drinking water and sanitation department supplies water to city towers from the Rukka and Kanke reservoirs. The RMC offers piped connections to households and collects water tax.
Filtered water from Rukka is supplied at 6am every day, but for the last four days, the timing has shifted to noon. Ajay Kumar, executive engineer (Booty division), said water was being pumped through two motors instead of three because of low voltage.
Upendra Kumar, a junior engineer, claimed quantity of supply had not been reduced, but need of people had increased with summer approaching.
"We supply water from 5.30am to 6.30am to Hindpiri Central Street and from 9.30am to 10.30am from fringes of Hindpiri. Quantity and pressure are the same. We do not supply water past midnight. Around 2am, the town line passes through Main Road area carrying water to various reservoirs. I cannot comment on how people are fetching water from those lines."
Deputy mayor Sanjeev Vijayvargiya said they had 34 water tankers for RMC's 55 wards (Hindpiri falls under ward 25), but the fleet size would be increased to 45 from Friday. "A strategy has been chalked out to meet the crisis," he added.
Hindpiri residents didn't sound pleased. "Tankers come only on alternate days - three or four of them at a time with a combined maximum capacity of 6,000 litres. The quantity isn't enough for our entire area," said Neha Sabnam, a homemaker.
Amid the glaring shortage, The Telegraph has discovered that two of the three water filling points of RMC in are lying defunct. The tanker refill stations are located at Bakri Bazar, Harmu and Doranda. The 7.5HP motor at Bakri Bazar conked out 10 days ago while the same at Harmu went out of order on Thursday morning. So, the entire load has been shifted to Doranda. Vijayvargiya promised quick repairs.
Bidyanand Sharma Pankaj, additional town commissioner, said the RMC had recently received Rs 12 crore from the state urban and housing department for judicious water arrangements. "We are planning high yield tube wells (HYDT) in worst affected wards like 23 to 28 and 51 to 55," he said.
Pankaj added that they were also planning to procure 50 tanks for different wards within a fortnight.
Additional reporting by Chhandosree
