Children fetch water at Jayipura in Kendrapara. Telegraph picture

Kendrapara, Oct. 2: Erratic drinking water supply has made life miserable for the residents of the district headquarters township here.

Though summer is over, the fast-expanding town has been reeling from drinking water crisis for quite some time as concerned authorities have allegedly turned a blind eye to the problem.

Large areas of this town are grappling with acute shortage of potable water. Officials attribute technical snags in motor pumps coupled with erratic power supply to the crisis.

To make things worse, water supply pipelines have also developed cracks at many places with water gushing out of these holes. As the sheer water wastage goes on unabated in many parts of the 22-km-long water supply network, domestic water taps are going dry. The cracks have also raised fears of contamination.

The water supply from the public health engineering department is erratic and it allegedly falls short of the daily requirement of residents here.

“Local officials are contending with multiple problems related to drinking water shortage. Water is being drawn from the Luna river near Kalapada village which is about 7km from the town. The water is then being scientifically purified in the treatment plant at Ichapur in Kendrapara before supply. Problem is often arising in water supply as there are frequent power-cuts at Kalapada and Ichapur,” said superintendent engineer, public health and engineering department (PHED) Basanta Kumar Senapati.

The department deposited a sum of Rs 35 lakh with the Central Electric Supply Utility for separate power supply connections to the water intake and treatment points. Though the deposit was made over a decade ago, nothing has materialised as yet.

The town requires at least 8 lakh gallon of drinking water every day. Unauthorised domestic water consumption is also a cause of major concern for the PHED. While there are 2,603 authorised connections in the urban areas, over a thousand domestic households continue to draw water through unauthorised connections.

The areas worst-affected by the water crisis are Nasadipur, Baranga, Saranga and Jayipura.

“Water has become a mirage. In the morning, we get water for hardly an hour. For the rest of the day, the taps run dry,” said Begum Rukshana, a homemaker from Jayipura.