A dry tap at Salepali in Balagir. Telegraph picture

Balangir, April 13: Residents of Salepali in Balangir are facing an acute water crisis, thanks to negligence on the part of the public health and engineering department (PHED), which, residents allege, has done nothing to address water scarcity in the area.

The locality, which falls in ward No. 18 of Balangir Municipality, has been struggling with this problem for the past several years. Water scarcity assumes alarming proportions in the summer. Residents say that pipe water comes to the area only once a week.

Sukanta Sahu, a local resident who has been fighting for the cause, said water crisis is an old problem in the area. “We have been experiencing water crisis for the last 20 odd years and instead of things improving, things have become worse. We have written to the PHED several times. At last, pipe water supply came to our locality from a production well in Rajiv Nagar in 2005. In early 2009, supply from Rajiv Nagar was stopped for reasons best known to them,” he said.

According to Sahu, water supply stopped for four months. “We met the district collector through the grievance cell in April 2009. It was agreed that water would be supplied to the locality from the overhead tank near the collector’s residence on alternate days. Initially, it was regular. Then it became twice in a week and now it is once in a week,” Sahu said.

Even the stand points which are the lifeline of the area are in a dilapidated state. Most of the stand points are damaged. “Some stand points have pipe opening towards the sky, there are no taps while others are underground and visible only when water comes. Some are located in unhygienic places near drains so that people think twice before collecting water from there,” Sahu added.

Moreover, the underground water table in the area has gone down drastically. There is no trace of water even 200ft underground. Almost all tubewells fail. The quality of tubewell water that is available is poor and can’t be used as potable water.

Madhusmita Sahu, a housewife, said that there was virtually no water supply in the area.

“Even when water comes, it is for 10 or 15 minutes. So only a few a people get the water. People would have been able to store some water for future use if it came for a reasonably good period of time. Now that it is summer, the situation is alarming. It has been eight days since we last got water,” she said.

The executive engineer of public health engineering department of Balangir, Bhakta Kabi Das, admitted that the area was a water scarcity zone.

“It is an area where is there is an acute water problem. But I don’t know about the allegation that water is supplied only once a week. I will look into it,” Das said.

He added that a permanent solution to the water problem of the area is the proposed with the setting up of an overhead water tank in Tulsi Nagar.

“We have a budgetary allocation for an overhead tank in Tulsi Nagar which will eventually solve the water problem of the area. Last year, no one responded to the tender. We will again call a tender in a short while,” Das said.