Residents of Balangir town draw water from a tube well on Wednesday. Telegraph picture

Balangir, May 28: Irregular and erratic water supply has left town residents high and dry as they face one of the harshest summers in the recent years.

The pipe water supply has been badly hit in the town with water being supplied only once a week for the past one month. And adding to the woe is the unbearable heat as temperature soars and is hovering around 45°C for the past couple of weeks.

The department of public health has attributed the erratic water supply to water leakage and frequent power problems. Balangir residents get pipe water supply from the Mahanadi river near Sonepur, about 55km from here.

Sources said the town had a demand of 15.76 million litre per day (MLD), but the public health and engineering department is capable of providing 8MLD, and that too, if the pump works for 18 hours a day.

While the town has 4,980 legal water connections, there are an equal number of illegal connections. Besides, there are 294 stand posts, which are the only source of water for a large number of people.

Water is supplied to Balangir through a 55-km pipeline from Nandanmal in Sonepur district — which passes through five stages. The places where water is pumped are Nandanmal, Sibtola, Kesharkela, Madhiapali and the overhead tanks in the town. The water supply gets disrupted, if there is technical problem or power failure even in one of these places.

Executive engineer of the department Bhaktakabi Dash said: “The water drawn from Sonepur is creating problem for us because of leakage, power cut, low voltage and other technical problems.”