A high-level water tank in Balasore town. Telegraph picture

Balasore, April 8: The public health engineering department is facing problems in providing water supply to the town mainly due to power cuts and low voltage.

“We are facing problems mainly due to power cuts and low voltage,” said assistant engineer of the department Ashok Mohapatra.

“Two underground reservoirs each costing around Rs 16 lakh are under construction to address the low pressure problem. While at Barabati, it is almost complete, at Badakhua, the work is in progress. Further a pump house at Bhaskarganj is waiting for completion of the electrical works. Once these projects are over, there won’t be any more low pressure problem,” he said.

With the onset of summer, residents of some patches of this town are encountering water supply problem due to low pressure.

Though the department claims that water is being supplied for at least six hours a day, the residents in some particular pockets, however, complain of getting pipe water hardly for an hour.

The problem is encountered at Purna Baleswar, Barabati, Manikhamb, Chunabhatti, Telenga Sahi and Bhaskar Ganj.

“We are getting pipe water with a very low force. It is very difficult to meet the household requirement. At times, we get even unclear water,” said Chunabhatti resident Arun Kumar Bhanja.

Babu Das of Purunabaleswar said: “We are getting inadequate water supply. Consequently, the residents often pick up quarrel among themselves near the stand post.”

On the other hand, the department officials claim that they have taken some measures to address the water supply problem.

The department has around 63 production wells in the town. The water is made available through around 630 stand posts and 280 hand pumps.

The department supplies around 18.56 million litres per day (MLD) to the town. The town having a population of 1.43 lakh requires about 19.41MLD water.