Electricity, water woes worsen across U’khand as heat wave progresses

Dehradun/Mussoorie/Nainital/Pithoragarh: Amid the ongoing heat wave in Uttarakhand, residents in capital Dehradun have alleged that electricity cuts have become longer and more frequent while water supply has been hit. In upper reaches, the problem of water scarcity has worsened. Public toilets lie closed in popular tourist town Almora. Tourists looking to escape the heat of plains are finding little respite in hill towns, as these too are getting warm.
“On Wednesday, the power supply was down for nearly four hours during the day. The same happened on Tuesday. The power back-up fails to work after a time. The demand must have drastically gone up because of high temperatures,” said Manvi Kalia, a resident of Race Course, Dehradun.
“The water levels keep dropping every summer. Every other household is re-boring to reach the groundwater table and have an adequate supply. The pressure from the main water supply line is extremely low. The demand goes up in summers and both quantity and quality have been affected these days,” said Rajat Singh, a Patel Nagar resident.
The water woes get much worse in the upper reaches of the state. In Pithoragarh, while electricity supply is fine, water is scarce. In Bel Patti area of the border district’s Gangolihat block, 25 villages have acute water shortage. Traditional water sources, like dhari (streams) and naile (springs), have either depleted or dried up, said zila panchayat member Kalyan Ram.
“Jal Sansthan is supplying water through tankers. While residents of villages near motorable roads are able to access these easily, those living in remote areas have to carry the water for two to three kilometres. Some carry it on mules,” he said. “The Bel Patti Drinking Water Yojana was sanctioned by the government for 49 villages. The tender process is underway, the project should be completed in two years,” said Ashutosh Upadhyay, executive engineer, Uttarakhand Jal Nigam.
In Almora, several public toilets have closed down during peak tourist season due to water scarcity. According to authorities, the toilets, which need around 200 litres of water per day, are getting supply every third or fourth day.
In Nainital, residents say they are feeling the need to use fans for the very first times. Many houses have never been fitted with ceiling fans. Tourists who had thronged the lake town for its pleasant weather were met with almost the same heat as plains, and the traffic jams have made it worse.
Ramakant Sharma, a teacher who visits his in-laws in Nainital every year from Mumbai, told TOI, “We never needed a fan in Nainital, it has never been this hot here. Now, we have bought a table fan.” Nainital is also reeling under water shortage, so water supply hours have been fixed.
In Mussoorie, another tourist hotspot, sporadic water shortages were reported from Gandhi Chowk and Landour areas. “We faced water shortage in May but the Jal Sansthan provided tankers,” said a resident.
RC Ramola, executive engineer of Jal Sansthan, told TOI, “Demand for water in Mussoorie during the peak season rises to 14 MLD (million litres per day), which is exactly double the supply: 7 MLD. Despite the shortfall in supply, we are managing through ‘balancing reservoirs’ which have storage capacity of 1.4 lakh litres. These are used during scarcity and replenished later.”
As reported by TOI earlier, the state has demanded over 830 MLD water, which is currently being met with a 650 MLD supply. Officials, however, maintain that over 62 per cent rural households in the state are receiving 55 litres of water per capita per day and by March 2024, all of them will be provided tapped drinking water under the Jal Jeevan Mission.
“We have an additional 250 tankers, which are sent to any area that reports water shortage,” said Nitish Jha, secretary, drinking water department.
Similarly, officials from the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) said that based on the weather patterns till Thursday, 54.62 MU daily, of which 47.84 MU is available and the rest is purchased from the energy exchange.
(With inputs from Pramod Dalakoti in Almora, Prem Punetha from Pithoragarh, Sonali Mishra from Nainital & Anmol Jain from Mussoorie)