Jajpur, June 2: Vyas Nagar residents struggle to quench their thirst as this town reels from an acute scarcity of drinking water. Nineteen of the 26 wards of the Vyas Nagar Municipality have been reeling from acute water shortage for the past several months. The problem has been aggravated in four wards of the town that are yet to be supplied piped water.

The areas of Panasia, Khandahata, Rampas, Kusunpur, Nuagaon, Kanheipur, Mochisahi, Dolipur, Ganesh Bazaar and Gopabandhu Chhak have been the worst affected this year.

“During summer, we have been facing a lot of problems due to lack of drinking water. The supply of water is irregular and erratic. So, it hits us very badly as the local administration and the public health engineering department fail to take steps to ensure required water supply to all the municipal areas,” said Chandrasekhar Panda, a resident of Vyas Nagar town.

Sources said the original master plan for Vyas Nagar Municipality was prepared some 20 years ago for a meagre 25,000 people. Now, the population of the town has crossed 80,000 as many steel plants are coming near Kalinga Nagar.

There are only three pumps to supply water in the entire municipal area. One among them has been lying defunct for long. So, there is virtually no water supply in many areas of the town.

“Even when water comes through pipe, it comes for a few minutes. So, only a few a people get water. The situation has reached an alarming proposition these days,” said Sabitri Sahu, a resident of ward No. 3 of Vyas Nagar Municipality.

The present state of drinking water supply in the city can be assessed from the fact that at present tankers are being used to supply drinking water in many wards of the municipality.

On the other hand, tanker supply to the areas hit by water scarcity is also not regular. It hardly meets the water deficit of the urban people. So, the administration’s attempts to compensate water scarcity by engaging water tanks have also failed.

For a population of over 80,000 in the town and a water demand of around 9 million litres per day (MLD), the urban water supply department supplies only 5 MLD water to this area from all its sources.

Refuting the charges of low water supply, PHED sub-divisional officer Uma Charan Rath, however, said: “We have been supplying adequate water as per the total requirement by the population of the municipality. What is really worrying is water theft or illegal drawing of water in many areas under municipal jurisdiction, which is creating problems such as water scarcity.”