Rourkela, April 16: The administration is busy tightening the noose on water theft that has reached alarming proportions in the city.

Residents are scared apprehending a gruelling summer coupled with the problem of water shortage.

Following the sub-collector's order, the tehsildar raided the compounds of a large number of brick kilns here. "I, along with my revenue inspectors, raided four kilns and seized their pumps and other machines used in lifting water from the river," said tehsildar Nibedita Pradhan.

The raid continued in the evening as well, and finally, the lady officer deposited all the seized materials at Bisra police station. The officer said the kiln owners were illegally lifting water from the Koel river. "There is a very small flow of water in the river, and at such a time, we simply cannot allow them to do so," said Pradhan.

Bisra police station inspector-in-charge P.K. Das said: "We have so far received three sets of seized water-lifting equipment."

However, public health department insiders say the sand mounds created to stagnate the water for lifting should be immediately removed. Lest, the water flow would not proceed further. When this was brought to sub-collector Himansu Sekhar Behera's notice, he said: "I will bring this to the notice of the appropriate authority and definitely remove the mounds to ensure proper flow of water."

This year, the Koel has gone completely dry as there is hardly any flow of water in it. This has led to serious water scarcity at Bisra, Jagda, Shaktinagar, Koelnagar and a substantial part of the captive township of Rourkela Steel Plant with more than one lakh population.

"We are allowing only one-time supply of water and keeping a strict vigil on the water theft," said an official in the water engineering department of the plant. It is supplying water late at night. Power supply is cut-off in the entire area in phased manner to facilitate water supply. Water is being sourced from the Mandira dam and supplied to the captive township.

The public health department's assistant engineer (Koelnagar) Sridhar Pattnaik said: "The flow of the water stream is incredibly slow."

Sundargarh district collector B.S. Punia said the Koel wire bridge project was not shelved or closed permanently. "Keeping in view of the serious water shortage this year, I will definitely impress the government about the project," Punia said.