Water supply halted for past 5 days

Balwant Garg

Tribune News Service

Faridkot, May 25

Due to spilling of sugar mill molasses in rivers, the drinking water supply has been halted in the town and nearby areas for the past five days.

While the Water Supply and Sanitation Board (WSSB) authorities are already in the dock as they failed in checking the flow of polluted water in the already stored safe drinking water in its reservoir, the negligence by board employees has pushed residents to drinking water crisis.

Now, before it resumes the drinking water supply, the WSSB is emptying its reservoirs of several crore liters of polluted water.

In absence of scientific method to dispose of the polluted water to empty the reservoirs, the WSSB is letting it flow in the open.

It is further percolating into groundwater near the WSSB’s reservoirs, thus polluting the underground water sources.

Groundwater in this region is known for high fluoride contents, so it is not usable for the purpose for drinking.

“With no water supply from the WSSB, we are facing many problems,” said Gurmeet Kaur, a resident of Talabwala Mohalla in Faridkot.

As the molasses has polluted water in Sirhind Feeder, along with major towns of Faridkot, Muktsar and Ferozepur districts, thousands of villages are facing acute shortage of drinking water these days.

For poor quality of the groundwater, the Malwa region is dependent solely on the Sirhind Feeder canal for the supply of drinking water.

In Faridkot block, besides about one lakh population of Faridkot town, there are more than 60 villages, which have been hit hard by shortage of drinking water supply for the last five days.

Chander Kumar Agarwal, XEN, WSSB, Faridkot, said the water supply from Sirhind Feeder would start by Saturday as the level of pollutants was now within the permissible limit.

“We are hopeful of resuming the water supply in the next 24 hours,” he said.

“Every day, Faridkot needs about 1.30 crore liters of water for routine supply. We are using movable water tankers to give minimum bare supply to the residents in some localities,” said Agarwal.

This water has been taken from tube-wells, adjacent to the canal.

Besides the high fluoride content, the area is known for high uranium concentration in groundwater, thus forcing the residents to avoid using it, especially for drinking purpose.

In its report, the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) had submitted some time ago in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, stated that of the total 235 water samples analysed in Bathinda, Mansa, Faridkot and Ferozepur districts, about 86 per cent of the water samples had uranium contents, more than 15 parts per billion (ppb), the permissible limit.

High fluoride content in groundwater

• Groundwater in this region is known for high fluoride contents, so it is not usable for the purpose for drinking. 
• As molasses has polluted water in Sirhind Feeder, along with major towns of Faridkot, Muktsar and Ferozepur districts, thousands of villages are facing acute shortage of drinking water these days.
• For poor quality of the groundwater, the Malwa region is dependent solely on the Sirhind Feeder canal for the supply of drinking water.