Firhad Hakim instructs dept to study feasibility of underground reservoir

Kolkata: Mayor Firhad Hakim has instructed officials of the Water Supply department to study how feasible it is to set up an underground reservoir for storing water in an attempt to address supply crisis in some pockets of the city's added areas.

"The problem of water supply still lurks in some pockets of the city. We have found that a reasonable amount of water is wasted at the time of supply at night. If we can store the water in an underground reservoir and have an overhead tank we can prevent wastage and address the problem of water supply," Hakim said.

An official in the Water Supply department informed that the Mayor has instructed them to develop a metering system to have an estimate of the total water supply and the amount reaching the end user. He has also instructed to identify the areas where such water leakage takes place and carry on jacketing and even replace the damaged pipes wherever necessary.

"The responsibility of operation and maintenance of the pipelines for water supply will now entirely rest upon the Director General (DG) of the Water Supply department," he maintained adding that leakage has been a major problem in water supply thanks to the damage caused during utility services work. The Mayor said the civic body has already identified some areas in the city and started tunneling in order to shift all utility wires on one end. "There should be no digging of roads in these areas for a period of three years. If any agency flouts the order huge penalties will be levied upon them," Hakim further said.

To mitigate the drinking water crisis, the department has chalked out an elaborate plan. In addition to the existing five water treatment plants at Palta, Watgunj, Jorabagan, Dhapa and Garden Reach, the civic authorities have decided to set up two water reservoirs at Garden Reach, one with 50 million gallon and another with 25 million gallon capacity per day. Another water reservoir with 20 million gallon capacity per day will come up at Dhapa.

Senior civic officials said work to complete construction is going on and once they are commissioned, the drinking water scarcity in some pockets of Jadavpur and Behala will be a matter of the past. Besides this, the booster pumping stations are coming up at Convent Road, Prafulla Park, Chaulpatty Road, Sen Pally and Parnashree Vivekananda Kanan. According to the officials, the KMC supplies 425 million gallons of drinking water per day and steps have been taken to stop its wastage. Kolkata is the only metropolitan city in the country where water drinking water is distributed for free. After coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee instructed the civic officials to increase the supply of drinking water.

The officials hope there will not be any pocket in the city with drinking water scarcity by 2021.