Water woes put power dept, PHE at loggerheads

Frequent faults in special power lines supplying electricity to water-lifting stations has brought the Power Development Department (PDD) and Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department at loggerheads.
It has created artificial scarcity of drinking water in Jammu and surrounding areas during summer, but the civic departments are blaming each other for the mess. For weeks now, several residential colonies are not getting regular supply of water during the sweltering summer.
On Sunday, the main water-pumping station at Company Bagh remained shut from 8 am to 6 pm due to a technical snag in the 33-KV power cable, leaving the old city area without drinking water. The supply remained disrupted on Monday as well.
Sources said a technical team of the PDD was not able to detect the snag and it was by the afternoon that the fault was rectified and supply restored to the pumping station.
“We have raised the issue of frequent disruption in power supply with PDD officials. They have assured us that infrastructure will be strengthened as people are facing problems,” said Sushil Aima, Chief Engineer, PHE, Jammu.
For years now, the PHE Department had been facing public ire for its failure to ensure regular supply of water in different localities during summer, when the requirement for water was the maximum. A senior Power Development Department official said other departments were unnecessarily putting blame on them.
“Technical faults are common during summer and remain for a few hours, but we cannot be held responsible for delay in supply of water. The PHE needs to improve infrastructure rather than putting the blame on us,” said a senior PDD official.
Senior officials from both departments directed their field staff and junior engineers to remain in regular touch to prevent further problems, which could directly affect supply in the city.
Groundwater was the only viable source available at present to meet the requirements of the 15 lakh population, facing shortage of 2 million gallon daily.
It got further complicated as a majority of lifting stations remained shut during due to unscheduled power cuts, affecting the overall water distribution network.
In the past over a decade, more than 200 tube wells had been dug by the PHE Department with the help of the Economic Reconstruction Agency and 19 more would be added by December, which were likely to put pressure on electricity supply.