(Top) An open well where the water level is about to reach the ground and the rock surface is visible. (Above) Property developers and builders are laying roads for their housing projects over water bodies. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, April 10: For last couple of days three water tankers from the Public Health Engineering Organisation (PHEO) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) have been supplying water to Sundarpada and Kapilaprasad areas.

But this barely meets the needs of the area’s 20,000 residents who are reeling under a drinking water crisis, as almost all the open wells are drying up and the 20-odd tube wells are not yielding enough.

“In our ward we need more than 50 tube wells to meet the water scarcity in summer. Most of our existing tube wells are not working. The officials of the PHEO recently conducted a survey and confirmed that the ground water table in the area has gone down drastically,” said Seikh Niyamatullah, secretary of Kapilaprasad-Sundarpada Unnayan Chhatish Parishad.

Niyamtullah also said that the railway authorities had given a green signal for laying pipelines for the project under the railway line. “Once the pipelines have been drawn till Bhimatangi, the distribution of water to Sundarapada and Kapilaprasad would be possible,” he added.

Krushna Chandra Sethy, the councillor of ward No. 57, said: “The water supply by PHEO and BMC tankers is also not regular, so the people are having a tough time.”

“The depletion of ground water is severe as seven ponds in the area have not been renovated for years. All these ponds are in a miserable condition, which is why the ground water is not getting recharged,” Sethy added.

President of the Parishad, Gangadhar Pradhan added that recently a builder had encroached upon a water body called Saraba pond belonging to local deity Kaliasani. “Today the villagers lodged a complaint. Now, if the authorities do not take any action then villagers will be forced to take law into their hands and dismantle the road,” said Pradhan.

The officials of the water resources department blocked the Daya West Canal, which flows near the ward, as the canal has turned into a sewerage channel. However, the canal water helped recharge the ground water table in the area.

The local councillor said the flow in Daya West Canal was stopped following complaints from the ward about diarrhoea deaths in Sundarpada-Kapilaprasad area.

“Sundarpada-Kapilaprasad has become the ‘diarrhoea ward’ of the BMC. So, if we allow Daya West Canal again to recharge ground water level in the area, there might be another diarrhoea attack, as the ground water will be contaminated,” said Pradhan.

A PHEO engineer, however, said that a water pipeline work under progress from Ghatikia via Khandagiri would include areas such as Dharmavihar, Gandamunda, Jagamara, Pokhariput, Sundarpada and Kapilaprasad. “For the time being we are trying to meet the crisis by supplying water through tankers,” added the engineer.