Aiming to ensure equitable and sufficient water supply across the city, the Chas Municipal Corporation (CMC) has proposed to undertake construction of a few more water towers with an estimated cost of Rs 147 crore at different locations in the city.
We have planned to construct six water towers across the city to achieve the objective of equitable water supply to each house, said Bholu Paswan, Mayor of Chas.
“We have also planned to dig intek wells near Damoder River and to supply water through pipelines to each house under municipal corporation area,” he added.
Its DPR was prepared after keeping several issues in mind including population residing in the municipal area, new wards and displaced areas, said Paswan adding “tender process has been completed, construction will be started shortly”.
The water crisis in Chas aggravated after the population saw a big boom in late nineties from mere 50 thousand people.
“The city is also hard hit by depleting water level and we are forced to buy water at any cost to save our lives,” said Gaghender a resident of Taranagar Chas. “Summer just arrived and water has already begun to be sold at Rs 15 to 25 per gallon in different parts of the town” , he added. Over 7 lakh residents of Chas are battling water crisis and are forced to buy water paying high prices.
Vikram Singh, a restaurant owner said, “We are still getting water supply by Nagar Nigam for barely half-an-hour in the day, which is not enough”. We have to purchase water bottles worth Rs 300 every day for cleaning, cooking and others, all is done with the filtered water, he said.
Meanwhile, seeing potable water crisis many people found new job of selling water to the needy residents who have got no options but to buy water at higher costs during these days.
“Since morning, even when there is a long line of utensils and cans at the public water supply tap, we have to pay a premium for procuring water,” said Binod another resident of Taranagar Chas.
Now I am earning 300 rupees per day by selling drinking water to the needy, said Shyankar a resident of lambakoli Chas. Fetching water daily is a big problem in Chas. “It’s very difficult for a working employee to spend much time over fetching drinking water for their family. So needy people used to buy water from us,” he added.
“We are determined to cater to more facilities for all those living within municipal limits. These include better roads, round-the- clock drinking water facilities, better drainage system, parks, well-lit roads, timely disposal of garbage, installation of hand pumps, besides other amenities,” said Mayor.
“Focus will be on core infrastructure services like adequate and clean water supply, sanitation and solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, affordable housing for the poor, power supply, robust information technology connectivity, governance, safety and security of citizens, health and education, and sustainable urban environment,” added the Mayor.