Surat: Around 14 lakh households of the city will be using 10 per cent extra water for the coming one month until Diwali. This is because people would be cleaning their houses with the water. Looking to the precarious water situation in the city, people should desist from wasting water. If this happens, the saved water would be enough to meet the needs of the people for another seven days, sources said.
Surat city gets 1,200 million litres per day (MLD) for citizens and the calculation of water supply is based on formula of 145 litres per capita per day (LPCD). Surat city, which has 50 lakh population, gets nearly 300 million cubic metre (MCM) of water, particularly from its main source ie Ukai dam, every year. Ukai dam, which is built over Tapi river, has not been filled even 50 per cent of its capacity due to insufficient rainfall this monsoon.
“We appeal to people not to waste water,” said HJ Khatwani, additional city engineer, hydraulic department, Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC). “If we save 120 MLD of water daily for a month, we would have 3,600 MLD of water. This will be enough to meet our needs for three days in an emergency situation,” said an officer from SMC’s hydraulic department.
SMC has started curtailing water supply for 10 minutes in a day in the city. This helps it to save 10 MLD of water daily.
“We will have to adopt such measures to ensure water in our reservoir lasts up to the next monsoon season. Water level at Ukai dam is just 317 feet, which is about 47 per cent of its capacity. With 3,000 MCM of water being released for irrigation, not much is left for drinking supply,” another officer said.