Children carry water in Jagatsinghpur. Telegraph picture

Paradip, March 18: The Jagatsinghpur district headquarters is reeling from severe drinking water crisis. With the scorching heat of summer knocking on the door, residents of the township are in for a hard time.

If the grim ground realities are anything to go by, the situation could aggravate in the coming days. Cracks have already started appearing in underground pipelines.

“Water is a like a mirage for us. We did without almost any water for three to four days last week. This is also the season for examinations. High school certificate examinations to college-level annual tests are held now. We are in great trouble,” said Paresh Mohapatra, a resident of the main market area.

Several other residents of the township echoed Mohapatra. While some are getting no water at all, others are lucky to get it in drops.

“Water supply is highly erratic. Drinking water seeps from the pipelines because of damage and cracks in underground pipelines. It’s taking almost 15 to 20 minutes to fetch a bucket of drinking water,” said Rajalaxmi Sahu, a homemaker.

The drinking water supply system set up by the public health engineering department (PHED) seems inadequate for this township that has a population of 50,000 people.

Besides a lone overhead water reservoir, there are five boring points to draw groundwater from. The installation of at least one more overhead reservoir and six other ground water boring points might solve the water crisis, residents said.

Lack of timely maintenance of underground pipelines has worsened the situation. Old pipelines have rusted, leading to cracks. They are yet to be replaced and water is getting contaminated.

Assistant engineer, PHED, Bikram Mishra said: “Daily water supply to some places has been disrupted because of cracks in the pipeline. Repairs are being carried out on a war-footing. Normal supply of drinking water will resume within a day or two. We plan to replace the old pipelines in a phased manner for smooth and uninterrupted water supply to residents in the town.”

He admitted that infrastructure was inadequate. “We are lack in infrastructure. We need 2.85 million litres per day to meet the present demand but are able to generate only 2.3 million litres daily. This is resulting in the shortfall.”