Poor layout of water pipes adds to residents’ problems

Vikram Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, October 1

The network of drinking water pipes in the old Jammu city is so badly designed that it is adding to the miseries of consumers.

The old Jammu city is fed through two sources of water — one from the Sitli lifting and filtration plant at Nagrota and the other from the Boria lifting and filtration plant at the Tawi banks.

The laying plan of water pipes started from the Water Works Department, Panjtirthi, which is very old. Under its new master plan, the public health engineering department came up with the laying of a master pipe through the city, from where offshoots were supplied to various households.

“This led to haphazard and erratic new connections given to households without any proper check of the existing ones. In the wake of no proper plan, pipes were pushed into houses through drains in mohallas leaving them choked and overflowing with filth every now and then,” said Upainder Krishan of Ustad Mohalla.

Not just Ustad Mohalla, the scenario is common in every congested mohalla in the old Jammu city where a bundle of pipes moves through dirty drains into houses.

“When there is any leakage or breakage, the filth of drains seeps into pipes and foul-smelling water containing deadly diseases reaches homes. The water is not even fit for bathing,” said Kamlesh Sharma, a retired government employee at Rehari Chungi.

Besides, whenever it rains, the drains that are already clogged with bundles of water pipes get choked and the filth spills out over lanes, emanating a foul smell in the entire area.

“Polythene bags and plastic bottles too block the drains. Besides, sweepers avoid coming out in the rain to clear blockades due to which the inundated area turns into a breeding ground for many infectious diseases,” said Karuna Kumari of Panjtirthi.

“We have corrected the faults in some areas of the old city but major work still needs to be done in lanes and bylanes. We hope that by next year, a single pipe supply will be maintained throughout the city,” said Hamesh Manchanda, executive engineer, PHE Division, City 1-Jammu.