An acute water scarcity has hit hundreds of residential colonies in the surrounding municipalities with over 2,000 public borewells having gone dry even before the peak summer months. Over 800 new colonies in the peripheral areas, which do not have an underground water supply network, depend on public and domestic borewells, besides the mobile tankers.
Providing water through mobile tankers and borewells in these municipalities is the GHMC’s responsibility, while water supply through underground pip-ed networks is the Water Board’s. Only about 60 per cent colonies in the surrounding municipalities have an underground water distribution network.
GHMC engineer-in-chief R. Dhan Singh said they have sanctioned nearly Rs 13 crore-worth of works that includes digging of 357 new borewells and hiring of 36 new mobile tanker vehicles. Currently there are 125 water tankers available. Likewise, the Water Board has drawn up Rs 5.5 crore-worth of works as part of its summer action plan and appointed special officers for its implementation. However, according to residents, the summer action plans proposed by both are woefully inadequate.