Rourkela, April 24: The water shortage situation in the captive township of the Rourkela Steel Plant has eased to some extent. But, the scarcity is far from over in some of the populated municipal areas.

"The residents of these areas receive water for 45 minutes a day on averageand that is sufficient for our needs," said Sector-4 resident Renubala Das, a homemaker.

"We are thankful to the management," said a woman from near Sector-6, despite the fact that the plant management was caught unawares when the shortage first hit.

Deputy general manager in charge of town engineering P.K. Mohapatra said: "We are supplying water to every household once a day for over 45 minutes on average. The township requires nine million litres of water every day."

Water to the city is now being supplied from the Tarkera Pump House (TPH) project on the Brahmani river. Last Sunday, representatives of the Rourkela Shramik Sangh had demanded that the plant authorities operationalise the Brahmani Water Works at Sector-8. It was set up in 1989 to ensure proper water supply to the town, Sangh president Prasant Behera had claimed.

Prior to the shortage situation, which had begun three weeks ago, water was supplied from the Koel river. "We are thankful to the management for activating the project," said Behera.

Rourkela Ispat Karkhana Karmachari Sangh secretary Himansu Bala also praised the efforts of the plant management in dealing with the situation.

"They did a good job in bringing normality back. However, this should have been done earlier," Bala said.

However, sectors 1, 2, 3, 18, 19, and 20 continued to face water shortage. With the establishment of another connection from the TPH project, the situation in these areas has improved. "We have almost stopped lifting water from the Koel and the full supply is being met from TPH," Mohapatra said.

The plant is also resorting to power cuts in particular areas where it is supplying water. "We are doing this so that no one can steal water by using high-power pumps," said a senior official in the town electrical department.

The public health engineering organisation is now exploiting the dry Koel for water at a sub-terrain level. It has stationed a mechanised vehicle to dig deep in the bed near the water-intake well from the river near Koelnagar.