Workers repair the pipeline at Divyasingpur off Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishne Reddy

Berhampur, Sept. 6: About 1.5 lakh people in and around the town have been suffering for the past three days following disruption in water supply after a pipeline burst at Chari Chhak in Divyasinghpur, around 35km from here.

While water supply to the Berhampur town has been disrupted, the crisis has also hit Berhampur University, Military Cantonment at Golabandh, the Indian Rare Earths colony and Chhatrapur. The 900mm-diameter pipeline developed cracks on Wednesday.

Approximately 16 million litres per day (MLD) of water is being supplied to Berhampur town, two MLD to Military Cantonment at Golabandh and one MLD each to Berhampur University and Chhatrapur from the Rushikulya project, said official sources.

Executive engineer of the public health engineering department (Berhampur division) Prasant Kumar Mahapatra, who visited the spot to supervise the repairs, said they had taken up the task on war footing. He said: “Fifteen persons with a gas-wielding machine, generator set and other equipment are working day and night to restore water supply. But, the main obstacle has been the incessant rain.”

“The pipeline burst because of the ‘water hammer’ effect — the heavy pressure that develops in a pipeline when there is sudden power failure. There was power failure in the feeder at 9am and it may have caused the damage to the pipeline,” said Mahapatra.

Neelakantheswar temple priest Neelakantha Mahapatra, who witnessed the bursting of the pipeline, said he had seen nothing like that before. “First, there was a hissing sound and that followed a loud sound and water gushed out from the pipeline like a fountain that went as high as 10 feet,” Neelakantha said.

Susant Kumar Behera, a junior engineer at the Rushikulya project, said they were expecting restoration of water supply by Monday.

Mahapatra said they were preparing to lay another 600mm-diametre standby pipeline to tackle such situations.

“The World Bank has sanctioned Rs 25 crore for the 13.8-km standby pipeline project, which is expected to be completed within two years,” he said.

VIP Colony resident Santoshi Sahu, who stays in a rented house that does not have a well, said she was facing a lot of problems.

“I don’t know when they will restore the water supply,” she said.