Paradip, May 13: The domestic water taps are going dry in the port town as the pipelines have developed cracks in strategic places with water gushing out of it.

The water supply from the port-run public health engineering department is erratic and falls short of daily requirement of the residents here. The supplied water is full of muddy and waste contents and unfit for consumption.

The situation is worse in the slum clusters on the fringes of the port town. The slum clusters such as Badapadia, Nua Bazar, Nehru Bangala, Bangalipada, Sandhakuda, Lockpada are not covered under pipe-water supply scheme run by the department. The tube wells have gone dry. The water tankers, pressed in by the municipal authorities, are sole drinking water source for over 75,000 slum dwellers.

“Authorities are insensitive towards people’s plight. Before the onset of summer, the pipelines were repaired hurriedly. Quality of repair and maintenance works was left much to be desired. As a result, the mended portions of the pipelines failed to withstand the velocity of water flow and got ruptured,” said Pitambar Tarei, a trade unionist.

The authorities said works to plug the pipelines were on a war footing. The water that is getting wasted would be saved. Besides, it would reduce the threat of water getting contaminated.

“Water shortage has hit the port town. We are trying our best to tackle the situation,” said Niranjan Patra, executive engineer, port public health engineering department (environment and civil).

There has been drastic fall in the water level both at the Taladanda canal and three water-carrying reservoirs in the port town. As against three million gallon litres of daily requirement of drinking water to meet with the people’s needs, hardly one million gallon litres are being generated everyday. This had triggered the crisis, he said.

The Asian Development Bank-funded Rs 90 crore-modernisation and renovation programme of the Taladanda canal has triggered the drinking water scarcity.

As fallout of the shortage, traders, selling drinking water pouches and mineral water bottles, are doing brisk business. With pipe water replete with impurities, residents here have resorted to buy packaged water.

“The drinking water supply to the Paradip port town is not satisfactory. Wastage of water from the cracked pipelines in such crisis situation is unwarranted. The department should ensure that such things do not recur. At present, all the residential colonies and slum settlements are by and large hit by water scarcity,” said Rajendra Nayak, executive officer of the Paradip Municipality.

“Water has become a mirage. We hardly get water for an hour early in the morning. For the rest of the day, the tapes go dry,” said Suhasini Mohanty, a home-maker.