Agartala, April 27: A searing heat wave worsened by crippling power shortage and crisis in water supply have been telling on normal life in Tripura. Since the last week of October, Tripura had gone dry because of total lack of rainfall.

Even though North Tripura, South Tripura and Dhalai districts of the state have received pre-monsoon rainfall, West Tripura district, especially a 15-km radius of Agartala, have not received even a drop of rainwater.

The situation has worsened because of a heat wave with mercury hovering between 37 and 39 degrees Celsius.

Official sources in the meteorological department said today’s temperature was 37.5 degrees Celsius though yesterday the temperature had reached 39.1, highest in the past three years. “The temperature is unlikely to drop in the coming three days as rain is expected only on April 29,” a source said.

The sources added that the humidity level today was 81 per cent though there is a possibility of relative humidity going lower tomorrow.

Apart from the heat, a crippling power shortage has emerged as a major sore point for the state. Tripura’s peak hour power demand currently is 160MW but the state receives 90MW of power from the northeastern grid.

while the remaining quantum was managed till recently by local generation from thermal plants at Barmura, Rookhia and Gomati, hydro-electrical power from South Tripura and loadshedding.

“The trouble has been created by lack of normal supply from the Northeastern grid and fall in generation from Gomati because the water level of the river has shrunk dangerously,” a source in the Tripura State Electrical Corporation said.

The sources added that unless normal supply from Northeastern grid was restored loadshedding would be effected for longer hours.

The heat wave and power shortage have also seriously affected supply of drinking water. All 10 rivers of the state, which provide water for supply through pipelines, have almost gone dry and underground water table has also declined “calamitously”, resulting in severe water shortage.

“We have been supplying water through tankers to 869 tribal villages in the interiors but how long this can be continued is still uncertain as the crisis is becoming critical by the day,” Sunil Debnath, chief engineer in the water resource department, said.

He added that unless there was rain within next two or three days the entire water supply system would collapse.