Three districts may have to face water shortage for another summer due to illegal tapping of water from the Narmada canal.
When chief minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Narmada water via pipeline to Kutch on May 19, 2003, residents shed tears of joy. They felt their parched land would not suffer from drinking water shortage.
But, Kutch continues to be thirsty every summer. “We have not got a single drop of the Narmada piped water for the past four days for this district headquarter town,” a senior official of the water works department of the Bhuj municipality told DNA on Saturday.
Water is supplied to the town from old tube wells which is insufficient to meet the requirements, he added.
Gandhinagar-based general manager of the Gujarat Water Infrastructure Limited, VJ Papaiyawala, admitted that water supply to Kutch had been badly affected along with Rajkot and Jamnagar for the past few days.
“Kutch and two other districts do not get full supply from the open Narmada canal which comes from Dhanki as farmers along the canal have set up hundreds of illegal pumps to draw water from it for their own use in farms. We are now using our biggest pump and with five big and small pumps in operation, the situation may improve in a day or so,” he added.
He said that a meeting had been held with the managing director of the Narmada Nigam Limited, S Jagdisan. Patrolling along the canal is being beefed up to see that no farmer illegally draws water, he added.
He said, “Our duty is to pump maximum quantity of Narmada water at the main Dhanki pumping centre, which is some 120 km from Malia water works, from where the piped water was distributed in three districts. Despite our labour, if sufficient water does not stay in this long open canal, how can water be pumped into the pipelines which supply water to Kutch, Jamnagar and Rajkot districts? Still, let us see what happens”, he said.
He added that they had already completely stopped supplying piped water to the industries in Kutch to augment drinking water supply.
When informed that this happens every summer, Papaiyawala said that the three districts would have to face water shortage for another summer.
“‘As a permanent solution to this perennial problem, we have already put into action a Rs.700 cr plan to lay a pipeline from Dhanki to Malia water works along with the canal so that no farmer can use this ‘enclosed’ water. We have already invited tenders and it will take one and half year to complete this project,” he said.
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