Guwahati Municipal Corporation to supply piped water daily for city residents

*City residents pose, “Is it Kejriwal’s impact?”

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: Faced with uncertainty to complete execution of the ambitious four 24X7 water-supply projects at South Guwahati West, South Guwahati Central, South Guwahati East and North Guwahati, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) has augmented its water supply capacity for city residents.

Residents of several prime localities namely Ulubari, Paltan Bazar, Lachit Nagar, Gandhi Basti, Sarania, Rajgarh, Birubari, Rehabari, Uzan Bazar have started receiving drinking water daily from GMC pipes installed at their homes. For the past many years, these residents used to receive water on every alternate day in a week.

A GMC official said new hi-powered machines have been installed at vital installations to suck surface water from the Brahmaputra, treat water and then supply the same to city residents. He said that the Corporation which was earlier capable of supplying water on every alternate day in a week, will now be able to supply daily and that too for a longer period.

“We have now plans to include more residents under our water pipe network in various localities,” the official said.

The present requirement of water for over 10 lakh population in the city is about 132 million litres of water per day (MLD) against which the government agencies are supplying only 79 MLD, the source said. The city’s daily drinking water requirement will go up to 350 MLD by 2025.

On other hand, sources said that going by the present scarcity of drinking water in the city it will be a major issue in the 2021 Assembly elections. The MLAs from East Guwahati, West Guwahati, Dispur and Guwahati MP Queen Ojha recently demanded that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal must do something urgently to minimize the crisis before the next year’s Assembly polls.

Basanta Deka, a resident of Lachit Nagar posed, “We are shocked to receive drinking water daily now that too for three to four hours at a stretch. Is it the effect of Delhi election results?”

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