Silchar needs a third water treatment plant

Aug. 4: There seems be no end to water woes for the residents of Silchar, the headquarters town of Cachar district. Even after two water treatment plants, there is a need for a third one to meet the ever increasing demand for safe drinking water.

First, there was a nagging paucity of potable water at its main water treatment plant in Silchar because of the slush and mud in the Barak.

The plant, commissioned in 1974 and designed to supply five million gallons of water a day to the town’s 18,000 households and commercial establishments, has outlived its utility.

Thanks to local Congress MP and Union industries minister Sontosh Mohan Dev, a Rs 5-crore central fund was pumped in to hike its output by another five million litres.

But with the town’s population touching 2.5 lakh, there was a need for a second water treatment plant. Its foundation stone was laid on April 22, 1999, by then chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.

Set up to cater to the needs of the middle class population inhabiting eight municipal wards, the plant at Ranghirkhari on the southern flank of the town cost the central exchequer Rs 13.6 crore and became functional on February 25, 2006. It ensured an output of only five lakh litres of potable water a day to 1,000 households and is now under the management of the Assam Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board.

The board has made it clear that it is not in a position to supply more water for domestic consumption. According to Kumud Das, the assistant executive engineer of the board, piped water supply to the other inhabitants in the southern extremity of the town is simply not possible because of its production limitations.

The plant hauls water from the Barak river through pipes at Kanakpur, 5km from Silchar.
The public health engineering department of the Assam government runs the first water treatment plant in downtown Silchar near the Barak riverfront and the Silchar Municipal Corporation collects Rs 70 a month as service charge from each household.

Its officials are of the view that the water crisis could be effectively tackled only if another water treatment plant — the third of its kind in Silchar town — with a capacity of supplying 7.5 million gallons of water a day is set up in the Tarapur locality on the western part of the town near the Barak.

The water scarcity in Silchar town, particularly during the long summer months, has now taken a new dimension with the board deciding to effect an upward revision in the tariff of drinking water being supplied to its consumers.

The board has slapped a fee at the rate of Rs 17 per kilolitre of water as against the earlier rate of Rs 7.

The inhabitants of south Silchar are now up in arms against this hike and have submitted a memorandum to chief minister Tarun Gogoi pleading for “a reasonable rate”. source: telegraph india