Balangir, Oct. 21: Residents here are facing one of the worstever water crises in recent times.

Pipe water supply has been completely disrupted in Balangir for the past 10 days after Cyclone Phailin damaged the 33kv gridline in Sibatola, about 25km from here. Power from the gridline is used to run the town’s water treatment plant.

Public health and engineering department (PHED) sources said that the power grid had been repaired and the town would soon be supplied with pipe water.

The 33kv power gridline, which run the water treatment plant in Sibatola about 25km from here, had got damaged due to the high wind speed.

Palaceline resident Mamata Sahu said: “We depend entirely upon pipe water as we don’t have any other alternative. The water of the ponds is not at all fit for drinking and cooking. We have no option left but to stand in long queue and collect water from the nearest tubewell. Pipe water has not been supplied ever since the cyclone struck.”

Another resident Abhimanyu Mishra said the cyclone and the subsequent rainfall had left the residents here in great difficulty.

“All water bodies in the town are now full, but their water is not suitable for use. Balangir faces acute water scarcity in the summer, but Phailin has brought the crisis on us in the in the rainy reason. The department should resolve the crisis,” Mishra said.

Balangir, which has a population of around one lakh people, gets water supply through a 54km pipeline from Nandanmal in Sonepur.

The places where water is pumped are Nandanmal, Sibtola, Kesharkela, Madhiapali and the overhead tanks in the town.

The town needs 6.6 million litres per day, but it has a capacity to hold 9.5 million litres daily if the pump works for at least 18 hours a day. Officially the town has 4,340 legal water connections. There are an equal number of illegal connections. But most people depend on the stand posts.

Executive engineer, Balangir PHED division, Bhakta Kabi Dash said the 33kv gridline had been repaired and residents would soon get pipe water. “Power supply has been restored. There were some leaks in the pipeline, which we had to fix. So it took some time. Some parts of the town are already getting pipe water from yesterday evening. Normalcy will be restored soon,” Dash said.