The people in Pauri town have been facing acute drinking water supply problem for the last twelve days with the situation reaching such a state that no water is supplied on alternate days at times. The Jal Sansthan supply of drinking water is facilitate on alternate days to the different parts of the town.
However, the situation has deteriorated to such an extent that residents of the regional headquarter Pauri are at times being deprived of water supply for up to two to three days. locals complain that despite crores of rupees bein spent on construction of the Nanghat gravity-pumping water scheme, the water supply travails of Pauri residents still appear to be far from redressal.
Residents of some localities of the town have been facing major inconvenience due to the disruption in supply of water especially in the last 12 days. These locals also complain that water was not being supplied from the Nanghat drinking water scheme for more than a fortnight now.
The resulting disappointment is rising in the public with locals lambasting the State Government for not doing much to resolve the alleged corruption in the Nanghat scheme for the last four years, despite an inquiry being delegated to the Garhwal commissioner on this issue.
Even before the creation of Uttarakhand State, Pauri town has been considered an important location housing both the regional HQ and office of the commissioner of Garhwal region.
It should be mentioned here that the Congress-led State Government under the then chief minister Vijay Bahuguna had inaugurated the scheme for water supply to Pauri in November 2012. However, the locals who are bearing the hardships caused by irregular supply of water state that the Nanghat project has failed to serve its intended purpose after expending of Rs 70 crore on it as varied anomalies have continued to affect this supply facility.
It is pertinent to mention here that Pauri town receives drinking water from two drinking water pumping schemes both based on Alaknanda river in Srinagar and Nanghat gravity drinking water scheme. The requirement of water for Pauri is 6 MlD and out of this 2 MlD and 1.5 MlD are being supplied respectively from the old and new Alaknanda drinking water pumping schemes.