Meghalaya: Grim water situation in Tura

TURA:

Tura is currently under the grip of a virtual drought, as most of the major water sources have either dried up or not in a position to provide more.

According to information received, a review meeting between various stakeholders held at the office of the Deputy Commissioner of West Garo Hills, Ram Singh, on March 8, deliberated on various issues faced by the town in terms of drinking water.

“Tura requires 25 mld (million ltrs per day) water supply and with present dry season all gravity sources phase I (Rongkhon), phase III (Didare) and augmented source (Ganolsa) are all almost dry. The entire water supply for Tura is at the pumping mode now is in Edenbari,” posted the DC in an update.

As per the administration, with full power supply, the town was getting only 14.6mld.

However, with 6 hours of load shedding, there is a water deficit of nearly 2.5 mld due to which only one supply of water was being made a day.

“We have spoken and requested the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) to exempt Edenbari from load-shedding. There are also various council lines and private lines which are continuously leaking and locals are requested to take care of leaking pipelines,” he added.

Worryingly the catchment area of Tura Water Supply Scheme (TWSS) is getting drier every year.

(Edited by Christopher Gatphoh)