GUWAHATI: The long impending Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) assisted Guwahati Water Supply Project will finally see the light of the day in January.
Officials mentioned that partial commissioning of the project will take place towards the end of next month.
Talking to G Plus, managing director of Guwahati Smart City Limited, Siddharth Singh informed, “We are trying to get partial commissioning of the project done by the end of January. After the partial commissioning work, we will keep on adding more houses as the work progresses.”
He added that additional houses will keep getting water connections as and when the pipelines get ready to deliver the water.
In the initial phase, approximately 2,000 houses will be benefitted around the Pan Bazar and Fancy Bazar areas of the city.
The Northern Guwahati Water Supply Project is slated to provide 38 million litres of water per day (MLD) to North Guwahati, once completed.
As per the authorities, the project consists of four major parts of construction. These include building the intake wells in the Brahmaputra River, construction of the water treatment plant, building of the reservoirs and finally the outlet network.
Deputy Chairman of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA), Mukuta Deka informed G Plus that the construction work for the water treatment plant has already been completed and water testing is currently underway at the plant. He also mentioned that construction of the Kamakhya reservoir is ongoing and will soon be completed.
He further added, “Work is ongoing in full swing under the project at the moment and we are receiving daily updates and are closely monitoring the same. We are hopeful that households in Guwahati will begin getting water supply very soon.”
Poor performance of contractors reason behind delay in project
Throwing some light on the reasons behind the consecutive delay in completion of the project, managing director of Guwahati Smart City Limited, Siddharth Singh mentioned that poor performance by contractors was the primary reason for the delay.
“Some of the contractors had to be terminated. Additionally, one or two contractors had gone bankrupt. This caused a lot of delay in completion of the works,” Singh told G Plus.
He added that along with the poor performance of contractors, certain land issues had also cropped up. These included the limited availability of land and limited working season.
The total project cost is estimated to be around Rs 1,450 crores. Out of this, around Rs 1,300 crores comes as a loan from JICA and the rest from the state government.
Apart from the contractor issues, interference by locals in certain areas also hindered the smooth functioning of the project.
The locals had earlier threatened that if they were not involved in the construction process, they will not let the work be completed. They expressed their demand to supply construction materials to the sites. However, the matter was resolved later.
The physical work of the water supply project began during the first half of 2012 and was supposed to be completed in 28 months.
Water scarcity a perennial problem in the city
Water scarcity has been a major issue for the residents of the city. G Plus had conducted a survey called “Let’s Talk Guwahati” earlier this year which revealed that four out of every ten houses in the city do not have a water connection, while half of those who have water connection do not receive sufficient water supply from different government agencies.
In the survey, more than 10,000 people from over 100 locations in the city were asked about the various issues they face in the city.
While 40 per cent of the respondents said that they did not have a water connection in their house, 48.3 per cent of the participants said that they receive insufficient water supply from the various government agencies responsible for supplying water. These departments are Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), Guwahati Metropolitan Drinking Water & Sewage Board (GMDW & SB) and Public Health Engineering department.
The water scarcity problem becomes worse during the winters. Residents of various areas of the city like the RG Baruah Road (commonly known as Zoo Road) and Christian Basti area have to depend on private water suppliers to fulfil their daily water requirements.
Experts say that the main cause for concern is the depleting underground water level which is decreasing day by day.
“Metropolitan cities such as Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai, also face water crisis but there the governments are actively involved in providing relief to the residents,” Debajit Borah, a Guwahati-based builder informed G Plus.
He added that the Assam government, too, should follow their footsteps and provide water facility to areas with low levels of ground water.
“The city needs to be properly planned and developed by the authorities so that the increasing number of housing complexes can be sustained in a proper manner. The government should think of building some infrastructure for water related projects,” said Borah.
Another city-based builder mentioned that an average individual requires 150 litres of water for consumption on a daily basis.