Damaged water pipes and other material at Kajauli Water Works located on the Bhakra mainline canal near Morinda in Ropar. Photos: Jaipal Singh
VALVES AND surge tanks that are 30 years old, headers ten years old — Obsolete machinery and no proper maintenance at Kajauli waterworks located at Morinda in Punjab is said to be the reason for frequent breakdowns that leave Chandigarh high and dry. This is even as Chandigarh pays Rs 1.6 crore as the monthly maintenance charges at Kajauli waterworks and Rs 2.5 crore as monthly electricity bill to Punjab for running the pumps there.
At present UT gets 85 million gallons daily (MGD). Of this, about 58 MGD comes from Kajauli waterworks, Phases I, II, III and IV and the remaining 27 MGD is generated through 250 tubewells. In summers, the demand goes up to 116 MGD and a gap in demand and supply arises. In winters the demand doesn’t go beyond 85-90 MGD.
For water to reach Chandigarh from Kajauli waterworks, set up in Kajauli village, water is lifted from the Bhakra main canal, SYL. The water is supplied to Sector 39 Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in Chandigarh through four pipelines, Phase I, II, III and IV. The Phase 1, II nd IV is maintained by Punjab while Phase III is maintained by Chandigarh MC.
Thereafter from Sector 39 Water Treatment Plant, Mohali gets its 10 MGD share of water at Sectors 56 and 57, where two WTPs of five MGD capacity, have been installed. To store the water, the town has four reservoirs with a capacity to store 30 lakh gallons water each at Sector 56, 57, 64 and Phase 10, two reservoirs of one lakh gallons capacity each at Sector 70 and 71 and one reservoir of five lakh gallon capacity at Phase VII.
An attendant at the Kajauli waterworks told Chandigarh Newsline that there were repeated leakages and problems in pumping as the machinery is old.
“The valves of phase 1 and 2 haven’t been replaced for nearly 30 years and even the headers are ten years old. As a result, leakages at certain points occur and to repair that, we need to shutdown,” he said. These flow control valves help in regulating flow or pressure of water. Since they are old, if for example two MGD of water has to be released, the defective valve wont regulate the flow and can send out additional or less water.
Meanwhile, when the water is pumped, it goes to the headers first and then the pipelines. In case of a power failure, headers need to prevent the back-flow of water. As headers are obsolete, they don’t prevent the backflow following which the pumps get submerged in water and thus damaged.
A senior official of the engineering wing of Chandigarh Municipal Corporation added, “The surge tanks are too old and the technology is also outdated. As the headers are obsolete, they are not able to take the pressure when there is a back-flow of water. This results in frequent leakages and thus for repair, the phases have to be shut down.”
Surge tanks play an important role. They are set up to absorb the sudden change in water pressure. If surge tanks are old, like in this case, it would damage the headers. Because of this leakage occurs.
Not satisfied with the maintenance work of Punjab government, BJP councillor Arun Sood, who was the then Mayor, had emphasised that maintenance of these three phases also be handed over to UT Administration. However, all efforts in vain and nothing transpired after that.
Talking to Chandigarh Newsline, Mayor Davesh Moudgil said that it was a policy matter and would bring in the general house. ‘The issue is that there are many agencies involved- like Punjab irrigation department, GMADA and they have control over it. I agree there is lack of routine checks on the part of Punjab authorities. If routine check is done, small leakages are noticed and repaired and the situation of water crisis in city may not arise. When we are paying them maintenance amount every month, we should rather take over the entire maintenance.”
Surinder Bahga, former nominated councillor and architect said that not just poor maintenance by Punjab authorities but faulty design of pipelines also appears to be the reason behind breakdowns.
“Whether it is replacement of pumps or the other machinery, I feel either it is done on papers or the quality is compromised. Otherwise, such machinery issues never crop up. I feel that there is a problem with the design of pipes as well otherwise why do we get to hear frequently that the pipe has burst or there is leakage,” he said.
Bahga added that now since the work of new phase V and VI is going on, the design of pipelines must be vetted by a National agency. “ Even if they have roped in the servcies of a consultant, that is good but I feel that the design must be cross checked and verified by a National institute. Faulty designs of pipelines lead to frequent bursting which is happening these days,” he added.
In July 2016, a technical snag cropped up which left Chandigarh high and dry for three days. The delivery header of the Kajauli waterworks, Phase I and II, had burst and the water flooded the two pump houses, which had machineries of Phase I, II, III and IV.
Because of this, all the eight motors in both the pump houses stopped functioning. With this, motors, panels and other machines installed there got submerged in water. Chandigarh MC staff also rushed to the spot.
According to the officials, due to a power failure, there was backflow of water in the pipeline to Chandigarh, which damaged the motors. In 2013 as well, the city remained waterless for 15 days following a leakage in Phase III and IV pipelines of the Kajauli waterworks.
Damaged water pipe and others goods laying after chaged at Kajauli Water Works located on the Bhakra mainline canal near Morinda in Ropar on Monday, March 12 2018. Express photo by Jaipal Singh
Punjab Executive engineer Anil Kumar who has been given the additional charge said that they keep repairing the machines and it is just that Chandigarh is at a height while Kajauli is a low lying area, because of which minor issues in pumping of water crop up.
“As and when we get funds from Chandigarh administration, we keep replacing the spare parts. As summers are approaching, we have to carry out maintenance work and it takes minimum 25 hours to 30 hours to carry out repair,” he said.
Water imbalance: Another challenge
It is not just Kajauli waterworks but the imbalance of consumption of water in sectors, another key reason of water scarcity in the city. A study conducted by Public health wing of Municipal Corporation Chandigarh in year 2013 had found that residents of northern sectors were using over 1,000 litre of water per person per day against the national norm of 135 litre per person per day. The officials had found that all the posh sectors used between 934 litre to 1,376 litre of water, per person, per day.
Residents of some sectors like 2,3,4,5 and 9, were drawing more than 1,000 litre per person per day. The reason was found to be the size of houses which was1 kanal or more in these sectors and drinking water used for irrigation of lawns leading to wastage of water.The consumption of water in southern sectors was far less. The consumption of water in Sector 56 was 138 litre per person per day.
Will additional water come by April 30?
Chandigarh is to get 29 MGD additional from new phases V and VI. The UT Administration has set a deadline of April 30 for the completion of the work.The work for laying two phases – V and VI – is already on. Land has been acquired at Jandpur in Mohali for setting up of water treatment plant.
The project of laying the 23.5-km-long Phase V and VI pipeline from Kajauli waterworks to Jandpur was launched in March 2012. Since 2015, it is being claimed by Chandigarh MC that water would be reaching next summers. But deadlines have already been missed and a new one set.
UT Administrator and Punjab Governor VP Singh Badnore also visited last month to Jandpur and Kajauli water works in Mohali to review the progress of the city additional water supply project.
In 1983, an agreement was signed between Chandigarh, Punjab and Haryana, wherein it was decided that the water from Bhakra through the Kajauli waterworks will be supplied to Mohali, Chandigarh, Chandimandir and Panchkula.
Summer yet to arrive, water woes begin
Even as the summers are yet to arrive, city has already started reeling under severe water crisis. From March 9 onwards, there was water crisis for about four days. The tankers of MC were pressed into service about 180 times since then in various parts of the city. There were 550 complaints of water.
It was only on the evening of March 9 that the water supply was to remain affected because of repair at a pipeline at Phase-III line near Pakki Rurki, Mankheri and at Water Works Sector 39, Chandigarh. Since then, residents in majority of the sectors like sectors 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 28, 34, 37, 38, 39 and other southern sectors from sector 40 to 51 had been receiving low water pressure.The supply was slightly normal by evening of March 12.
Chairman of Federation of Sectors welfare association of Chandigarh, Baljinder Singh Bittu said , “ Is this smart city where people have to crave for basic amenities like water?”