Residents of several blocks in Salt Lake were confronting dry taps over the past few weeks because the South Dum Dum Municipality was drawing more than its quota of water from the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) supply line.

The two localities get 16 million gallons per day (mgd) of water from the CMC with Salt Lake getting 6.5mgd to keep its taps running. As the mercury shot up this April, the South Dum Dum civic agency began drawing 12.5mgd on an average — 3mgd more than its share, a senior CMC official said.

“This means Salt Lake is getting half of what it should get. Overdrawing has triggered water scarcity in the township,” the official added.

South Dum Dum Municipality denied the allegation.

Salt Lake blocks BD, BE, FD, BA, BJ, CB, DE, DK and FE were bearing the brunt of this shortage much more than the other localities, forcing residents to buy water at a premium from private suppliers twice or thrice a week.

The crisis has deepened because the Bidhannagar Municipality, which controls Salt Lake, has to divert 1mgd to Nabadiganta for the Sector V tech hub and government offices and residences.

Officials attributed the drought at Salt Lake homes to “complete lack of monitoring of water supply”, especially the distribution to the two municipalities.

“There is no monitoring of the distribution after the CMC releases the Tallah tank water to the two municipalities. We have called representatives of both municipalities to solve this problem,” the CMC official said.

Salt Lake has been regularly getting parched every summer because of the supply short shrift. But the CMC authorities claimed to have solved the perennial crisis supplying an additional 2.5mgd since September last year.

Bidhannagar Municipality chairperson Krishna Chakraborty asked the residents not to hit the panic button yet. “A pipeline in the network maintained by the CMDA was damaged a few days ago. It has been repaired and the supply chain restored. There is no problem now.”

“Turn the taps at my home and see for yourself. There won’t be a drop after the early morning supply, that too erratic. I have to set the alarm at 6.30 and wait to fill a row of buckets to last the day. Most of the days, water comes in a trickle and we can hardly fill a couple of buckets,” said Madhuchanda Bhattacharya of BE block.

People said private suppliers made a killing when the crisis was at its peak during March-end. The price of a water tank that holds 480 litres rose to Rs 950.

“There was no supply for three consecutive days during Holi and we had to fork out Rs 950 for a tank,” Rita Tandon of FD block said.