Balangir, Sept. 13: Balangir is reeling from an acute drinking water crisis as piped water supply has been seriously affected for over a week because of flooding of the river Mahanadi.

The flood has not only caused widespread destruction in Sonepur district, it has completely submerged the intake well and machinery at Nandanmal on the banks of the Mahanadi near Sonepur from where piped water is supplied to Balangir town.

Official sources said the public health and engineering department (PHED) was taking steps to restore water supply to the town as soon the floodwater recedes. A senior official of the department, however, said that water supply could not be restored in Balangir for at least another one week. The PHED has pressed into service some tankers to supply drinking water to the town’s residents.

Sources said the main transformer at Nandanmal had broken down a few days ago. It was repaired and was being installed when a sudden flood in the river swept away some nine staff of the PHED. They were later rescued.

The flood, which caused havoc in Sonepur for the next five days, completely submerged the transformers, motor pumps and other machinery thereby disrupting water supply to Balangir. Balangir gets piped water from the Mahanadi in Sonepur, which is at distance of about 50km.

Sanjeev Mishra, a resident of Sagarpada, said residents had not been getting water for the past 13 days. “First, it was the transformer which had broken down and now, it’s because of the flood in the Mahanadi. With well water not suitable for drinking and cooking, it is very difficult to manage without piped water,” Mishra added.

Minakshee Maharana, a homemaker, said that though PHED was supplying drinking water through tankers, the quality of water was not good. “They give us deep borewell water, not river water,” she said. Members of the town Congress committee gheraoed the executive engineer of the Balangir PHED division demanding immediate restoration of piped water supply to the town. The president of the town Congress committee, Sudam Sahu, demanded that the PHED take up the issue on a war footing. “We demand that the PHED bring in at least 50 tankers to make water available to all the families in town. The department should also be proactive and restore piped water supply from the Mahanadi,” he said.