Nagpurians are caught in a double jeopardy. The October heat is making life miserable and adding to the misery is complete chaos on drinking water front as for third straight day citizens could not get enough water to quench their thirst. This is despite claims by Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and Orange City Water (OCW) that piped water supply resumed across the city from Friday. A 36-hour shutdown was taken for pipeline interconnection works for the Pench-IV Water Treatment Plant (WTP) but it could not get completed within the time period. A grim reality persists on the ground as several localities continue to remain completely dry. Even after the primary mains were re-energised, not a single drop of water reached low-lying and interior settlements, intensifying public distress and forcing residents to depend on water tankers once again. Hanuman Nagar Zone and the residential belts along Wardha Road have been hit especially hard by acute water scarcity, sparking a frantic scramble for private and civic tankers. According to tanker operators servicing the belt, a barrage of calls has been pouring in since morning from areas such as Hudkeshwar, Narsala, Mhalgi Nagar, Meher Baba Nagar, Renuka Nagar, Narendra Nagar (Shilpa Society), Rodkar Layout and other areas. Because the mains remained shut for three straight days, local elevated service reservoirs failed to build sufficient heads, leaving consumer taps bone-dry even after supply resumed.

 

Tankers are forced to make more than eight to ten trips daily, with each run taking up to two hours due to heavy traffic and distance, making timely deliveries difficult. The root cause of the problem is extension of 36-hour water shutdown. It was originally initiated at 10 am on October 6 to execute the interconnection of two 1,400 mm diameter pipelines near Mankapur Nullah. The technical work was slated for completion by 10 pm on October 7, unforeseen engineering hurdles under the World Bank project led to an extended shutdown. Consequently, nearly all elevated reservoirs except North and East Nagpur got affected, forcing desperate citizens to queue for hours at filtration centres and public standposts. The OCW officials accepted the upsurge in the demands of water tankers in past couple of days, but delayed sharing the accurate figures with ‘The Hitavada’. OCW officials maintained that outgoing water pressure from the treatment plants to primary command reservoirs remains normal. They explained that because households went without piped water for three consecutive days, consumers drew large volumes simultaneously to build multi-day reserves, overburdening distribution limits and causing severe supply delays at the tail-end. While the administration has promised that supply will be restored by Saturday, residents in peripheral colonies are left waiting in line for emergency tankers.