Balurghat: Drinking water supply in Balurghat Municipality area may be affected due to the low water level and reduced pressure in the Atreyee River. In response, the civic authorities on Monday launched a loudspeaker awareness campaign across different wards to inform residents about the developing situation.
At present, water is being lifted from the Atreyee River and sent to the treatment plant at Balurghat Congress Ghat for purification before being supplied to households. Of the municipality’s 25 wards, 22 wards currently receive water twice daily — from 7:30 am to 8:30 am and from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. However, newly included Wards 13, 14 and 15 at Chakvrigu are yet to receive household water connections.
The municipality has so far provided domestic water connections to around 11,500 households out of 16,318. Commercial establishments and residential flats are not yet covered under the home drinking water network. The daily water requirement for the town stands at approximately 8.5 lakh gallons. A Rs 2 crore tender has also been floated to extend new connectivity from the Public Bus Stand to Raghunathpur along the NH 512.
Chiradeep Das, Sub-Assistant Engineer of Balurghat Municipality, said: “The daily requirement of water in the municipal area is around 8.5 lakh gallons.
Due to the low water level and reduced flow in the Atreyee River, we have started an awareness campaign so that residents can use water judiciously.”
Municipality Chairman Surajit Saha said: “Every year between March and May, we face such a situation due to shortage of water and low pressure in the Atreyee.
This year the damaged dam and lack of sufficient rainfall have worsened the problem. However, the situation is not out of control. We are considering changing the afternoon supply timing from 12:30 pm–1:30 pm to 1:30 pm–2:30 pm to facilitate better water storage. We are also trying to ensure that regular supply continues without major disruption.”