Scarcity of water in city to soon be a thing of the past, assures Mayor

Kolkata: Mayor Sovan Chatterjee expressed his optimism on Monday that scarcity of water in a handful of pockets in the city in summer months will soon be a thing of the past, with the Water Supply department of the civic body setting up a reservoir with 10 million gallon capacity at Garden Reach and constructing a 40 inch pipeline from Taratala to Tollygunge for distribution of water.

Responding to a proposal from Left councillor Mrityunjoy Chakraborty at the monthly session of Kolkata Municipal Corporation on Monday, Chatterjee said, "The KMC has done a lot of work in augmenting the water supply line and at the same time, has constantly boosted the infrastructure of water treatment plants at Garden Reach and Dhapa area. We are spending Rs 100 crore for construction of a reservoir at Garden Reach, with a capacity of 10 million gallon. We are also setting up a pipeline from Taratala to Tollygunge via Tollygunge Circular Road, which will provide a major boost to the distribution network from Garden Reach."

The Mayor admitted to problems of water supply at a handful of wards in the city. Borough 10, 11 and 12 and wards 107, 108, 109, 101, 102, 110, 111, 95, 96, 97 and 98 are some of the areas where there is some problem regarding availability of potable water in the summer months, when the requirement is maximum.

"Once we complete the work of the reservoir and the pipeline, the problem of water supply will be solved to a great extent," an optimistic Mayor said.

He admitted that in these wards, people have to depend on deep tubewells and there are still 100 such tubewells in the city, mostly in these three boroughs. "There were 850 tubewells around five or six years ago, but presently the number has come down to 100. We have set a target to take the water distribution system in the city to such a level, that in the next two years there will not be a single deep tubewell in the city," an official in the Water Supply department of KMC said.