In Almora, residents rely on traditional naulas as decades-old pipelines await repairs

ALMORA: With the onset of summer, many people in Almora are having a hard time grappling with severe water crisis . Water supply has been frequently disturbed in several areas of the town. Residents fear their water woes will only increase as summer marches ahead.


“Last week, there was no water supply in our area for four days.

People had to go to the local naulas (little aquifiers) to bring water and that, too, only after standing in queues for long,” a resident of Dubakiya Mohalla, Jeevan Chandra said. “When we spoke to the officials of Jal Sansthan, they said that supply of the main tank was broken because of which all the water got drained. Water supply was restored for two days but yesterday again, we didn’t get water,” he added. Jaymitra Singh Bisht, a resident of Joshi Khola, told TOI, “We face water crisis every summer. There is nothing new about no water supply. People rely only on traditional naulas but even these are drying up. The administration is not taking concrete steps to solve this problem once and for all."

Meanwhile, superintending engineer of Jal Sansthan, KS Khati said that water crisis arises every year because supply of water to the Jal Sansthan is not adequate. “Almora town needs at least 16 MLD water per day, while Jal Sansthan gets only nine MLD water. There is shortage of seven MLD per day. The problem lies there.”

Khati said that the water supply line in Almora city was laid around 30-40 years ago and needs urgent revamp . “No new water supply lines have been laid while the population of the city has kept on increasing in the past three to four decades. With these old supply lines, enough water cannot be supplied as per the requirement of the city.”

Chairman of Almora Municipality, Prakash Chandra Joshi also expressed anguish over continued obstruction in the supply of water. He said, “The water supply is not in our jurisdiction, only Jal Sansthan tackles it but they are not taking their responsibility seriously. In these 30-40 years, old supply lines often burst and are incapable of supplying water from the barrage that has been built in Kosi river.”

Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Peyjal Sansadhan Vikas Evam Nirmaan Nigam said that it has prepared a proposal to completely renovate the water supply system of Almora town. “We are working with the vision of 2050 when the city’s requirement will be 18 MLD per day,” executive engineer of the nigam, Keshav Dutt Bhatt said. “We have sent a proposal to the government and now we are waiting for the funds. The first proposal is of Rs 27.50 crore which will renovate 40% of the city’s supply system. In the next step, the whole system will be renovated as per the 18 MLD requirement and it will be linked to the Kosi barrage,” he added.