Berhampur, Dec. 21: Residents of VIP Colony at Kamapalli, Vidya Nagar, Courtpeta and Ankuli are facing problem as they have not been getting water for the past three days.

The water supply from the Rushikulya Joint Water Supply Project at Kaliabali has been badly affected as one of the collect wells of the project has not been generating water for the past eight months and the other two wells are generating less amount of water.

'The three collect wells generate 20 million litres per day (MLD) and 15MLD during summer. However, the present amount of water collected through these wells has come down to 10MLD, which is alarming,' said Dambarudhar Nayak, assistant executive engineer of the public health engineering department.

The project was commissioned in 1983.

Clear water from the three wells is sent to a reservoir at Kaliabali that has a capacity to store 200 lakh litre in three compartments.

Frequent power disruption to the collect wells also posed serious problem in generating sufficient water, Nayak said.

Over the years, the course of the Rushikulya river has drifted a few metres away from the collect wells. The department has requested Simanchal Sahu, executive engineer of irrigation, Bhanjanagar, to release water into the Rushikulya at least once in a fortnight to recharge the groundwater, sources said.

The 31-year-old reservoir at Kaliabali has become weak and developed cracks at several places. It requires urgent repairing.

The 14-km long pipe connecting the collector wells with the reservoir is also 31 years old and has become weak. The life span of the pipe is, however, 30 years.

'The proposed new ductile iron (DI) pipeline could be used in case of emergencies. The existing pipeline gets damaged when the water flow is affected. Sudden power failure also causes heavy pressure in the pipeline. If the power trips for even one second, the motor stops automatically,' Nayak said.

'The situation will improve only when wells and reservoir are repaired and the 14-km long pipeline is replaced,' Nayak said.

The World Bank has sanctioned Rs 2,519.69 lakh to the Berhampur Municipal Corporation under the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project. An additional pipeline will also be laid. The existing pipeline needs to be replaced with the DI pipelines, he said.

VIP Colony resident Saila Subudhi said the department should take urgent steps to restore water supply. 'We are suffering a lot, and it's the duty of the government to see that we get water,' Subudhi said.