Rourkela, April 15: The rising mercury has unleashed miseries in the city with the water in the Koel river fast drying up causing unprecedented water shortage.

Authorities are digging deep pits to tap groundwater to prevent the situation from becoming worse.

"This is my 55th year in Rourkela, and for the first time, I am scared," said Renubala Das, a home-maker at Sector-IV. Not only Rourkela Steel Plant township, but also areas such as Civil Township, Basanti Colony, Nayabazar, Koelnagar, Shaktinagar and Jagda are facing severe water scarcity.

Sources in the Rourkela Steel Plant confirmed fears about a water scarcity. However, they said plant work would not be affected. A good amount of water coming from the plant's Tarkera wire bridge project to its captive township is lost because of leakages in pipelines.

Rourkela is surrounded by two rivers, Koel and Sankh, which meet at Vedvyas to form the Brahmani. However, while the Koel, which comes from Jharkhand, is totally dry at the moment, the Sankh's flow, too, is weak.

The Koel had never been so dry in the past, said sources. It could be because the river's flow has possibly been obstructed upstream with dikes.

"There are no dikes on our side of the border, but I can't say what might have happened on the other side," said assistant engineer of the public health division of Koelnagar and its adjoining areas.

A dry Koel means hard time for a large area starting from Birsa, Jhirpani, Koelnagar, Shaktinagar, Jagda, the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela and a sizable portion of the captive township.

Every year, the plant constructs a sandbag wall by April and the flowing water accumulates, thus taking care of the need of these areas.

But this year, there is no flow of water and the bed is almost dry. The health division has appealed to the people to use water judiciously.

For the first time, deep pits are being dug to tap water from ground.

On the other hand, demand for the execution of the check dam project on the Koel near Koelnagar has gained momentum. On July 7, 2013, Chief minister Naveen Patnaik laid the foundation stone for the project.

But apart from some survey work, nothing has progressed in this regard.

Executive engineer of irrigation department Ajaya K. Biswal said: "I can only say that the whole project is in the design cell."

A final decision on its construction is yet to be taken. Even the plaque from the foundation stone is missing.

Local MLA Subrat Tarai has called on the Rourkela Steel Plant's chief executive Ashis Kumar and taken stock of situation. He also discussed the fate of the project and said he would take up the issue with the government.

The newly elected president of executive association Bimal Bisi said: "In the greater interest of our workers, we will take up this issue on the right forum."