Jammu, July 8: Frequent power cuts since the past around two months have severely affected the city's water supply.
 The city gets over 45 million gallon per day (MGD) water through Public Health and Engineer Services but the entire water supply system has gone haywire due to long power cuts.
 Residential colonies get water supply for an hour twice a week and in many places the inhabitants are forced to buy the water from private operators.
 "Nowdays, we are getting water only twice a week against the alternate day supply and there is no fixed time for supply as well," said Shalini Sharma, a resident of Channi.
 In most parts of the city, water is first stored in underground or overhead tanks located. The PHE manages the water storage through various over-head tanks constructed by the Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA). However, most of these over-head tanks were also lying defunct from last over two years.
 A senior PHE official admitted that water supply has been hit due to the ongoing frequent power cuts. Water pumps at the underground tanks and tube-wells need to have power back-up to ensure water is supplied on time.
 “In most of the case the supply is either affected due to prolonged power shut downs or low voltage – which does not permit us to switch on the pumps”, he said.
  “Over 200 Tube Wells are dependent on power supply. On an average 50 percent of them remain out of order due to mechanical fault or shut down due to power curtailment. Low voltage is yet another problem. It aggravates the problem during hot summer days,” he said.
 He, however, claimed that over 50 water tankers have also been deployed in Jammu city to cater to the need of the people during these summer days.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 9 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST