'Problems of short supply of water to be resolved shortly'

KOLKATA: Firhad Hakim, chairman Board of Administrators, Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), assured the citizens of Kolkata that the problem associated with short supply of drinking water in north Kolkata and parts of central Kolkata will be sorted out by Tuesday or Wednesday.

The residents of north Kolkata and several pockets of central Kolkata has been complaining of muddy water being discharged from the taps and also much lesser flow since Sunday. "The DVC(Damodar Valley Corporation) had discharged 10 lakh cusec of water in an indiscriminate manner that had resulted in tidal wave in the river Hooghly. So, the silt underneath the river has come out in large quantity and got mixed with the water. Hence, when the water pumping stations are drawing the water there is huge quantity of silt and less quantity of water. The production in Talla water treatment plant has fallen by 50 per cent and so there is a problem in water flow," Hakim said.

He maintained that it will take one or two days for the silt to settle down and water supply will be normalised. "We are using a much greater quantity of alum for treatment of the water and the water is being discharged only after suitable laboratory test. So, it is safe to use it for drinking," Hakim added.Anindya Kishore Routh, who is the outgoing chairperson of Borough III in KMC, was the first to bring the matter before the notice of KMC's Water Supply department. "I have made arrangements for miking in all the nine wards under my borough appealing to people to drink the water after keeping it for sometime as this will settle the silt that is being discharged," Routh said.

A senior official of the Water Supply department said this is not an uncommon phenomenon during high tide in the rainy season but this year, the effect has been maximum with DVC's discharge of water.