Water crisis haunts Salt Lake

When it comes to water supply, Kolkata is way ahead of other metros. But the posh satellite township of Salt Lake on the eastern fringes of the city is an exception.

Salt Lake residents have a tough time every summer when taps run dry. Come 2009 and their suffering is only going to get worse. A survey by French consultant Seureca has predicted that water supply to the township will fall far short of the increasing demand. The state urban development department had engaged Seureca to conduct a water management survey at Salt Lake and its adjacent areas. The survey was aimed at exploring the feasibility of outsourcing water supply, sewerage, drainage and solid waste management of the township through public-private partnership.

The experts have pointed out that the projected demand for piped water in Salt Lake area - excluding Sector V - would far exceed the supply capacity by end-2008, The daily demand of water that stands at 9 million gallon a day will touch 20 million gallon by then. At present, the municipality receives around 6 million gallon from Tala and the civic body pumps in around 3 million gallon every day.

Salt Lake residents can easily understand the gravity of the situation as they already have to bear with shortage during the summer. Civic officials conceded that the township does not have a water treatment plant. It has to depend on the daily supply of filtered surface water from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. According to an agreement, the municipality can get a maximum of 10 million gallon of filtered water per day, but receives much less now.

There exists an underground reservoir with a capacity of five million gallon per day for emergency. But the report predicts that it will be of little help in tackling the crisis. Seureca has proposed that a new underground reservoir be built. The report warns that unless this is done, water supply may have to be slashed to six hours a day in the future to narrow down the demand-supply gap. But the Bidhannagar Municipality is working on several plans to improve the water supply system. The municipality's chairman-in-council, Tapan Talukdar, who looks after the township's water supply system, said they have started working on increasing the capacity of the water tanks.

"We have started working on increasing the capacity of water tanks 1, 3 and 13. Gradually, capacity of all the water tanks will be increased. We have also submitted a proposal to KMC to increase the supply of water from Tala," he said.

At present, the 17 water tanks at Salt lake have a capacity of 20,000 gallon each. The capacity would be increased to 25,000 gallon, Talukdar said. Besides, the civic body is trying to introduce water service charges to earn revenue with which it can pay for additional water supply from Tala.

The civic authorities are also trying to extend the duration of supplying filtered water from seven to 12 hours a day. The state urban and municipal affairs department also plans to introduce 24-hour surface water supply to all municipality areas under KMA with the help of JNNURM funds.

Source: TOI