Water scarcity hits Sector 40 as pipes go bust

CHANDIGARH: Thrice everyday for the last three days, Raj Malhotra, a resident of Sector 40, treads 100 metres from his residence to Sector 40 market to get water from hand-pump for his daily use.
Another city resident, Paramjeet Singh of Sector 44, had to go to the market to purchase water when guests called in and there was no water in the house to offer them.And they are not the only ones who are suffering as over 70% residents are irked with the non-availability of water for last three days due to breakdown in main water pipelines, following which all tanks have gone dry.
Taking to TOI, Paramjit said, “I am forced to take water from hand pump, installed in market, as there is no water supply through tanker in our area.” This is the third time in last 10 days that water supply has been disrupted due to breakdown or leakage. On May 18, the main pipeline broke down and most of the parts of city went dry. On May 25, an official shut down was declared in the afternoon due to leakage in main pipeline, but it disturbed the supply throughout the day and on the same day, in the evening, a breakdown emerged in the same main supply pipeline.
P C Sanghi, a retired chief engineer from Haryana and chairman of Federation of Sectors` Welfare Association of Chandigarh, said, “This is a result of complete mismanagement on the part of MC.”
MC’s superintending engineer, R C Diwan, said, “There was leakage in the main pipeline which we repaired to resume water supply. But suddenly the pipeline burst and supply suffered again. It was an accident.”