Normal water supply in city to be restored today

Surat: Major parts of the city that is facing water shortage following 25% cuts imposed by the civic administration due to non-operating intake wells, will get some relief from Thursday.
The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) officials on Wednesday said that normal supply of water is expected from Thursday.
Despite good inflow in Tapi river following heavy rain last week, water treatment plants remained dysfunctional due to clogging on intake wells by water hyacinth and other forms of vegetation.
The problem of water shortage began last week in areas like Vesu, old city and even in Udhna Gamtal, where people have been complaining either of no water or getting it at low pressure and in not enough quantity.
Many parts have been only 65-70% of it regular supply and that too at odd hours.
The main reason for this is non-functioning of five intake wells located at Valak, Sarthana and Katargam water works.
Large quantity of water hyacinth and other forms of vegetation near the intake wells of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) is blocking water intake.
Four days back when one lakh cusecs of water was released from Kakrapar weir, 55 km from Surat city, huge amount of vegetation came along with the water in Tapi river. It took SMC authorities nearly four days to clean it up.
“Treatment of 50% of water had become difficult and so supply suffered,” said S Bhagwakar, executive engineer, hydraulic department of SMC.
He also added, “With the help of nearly two dozen people we have completed cleaning work of all the five intake wells and we expect normal supply from Thursday.”
A housewife from Vesu, Anjali Nayak said, “We are fed up with inconsistency of water supply. I have started feeling that I am not living in Surat but in some dry arid land where water scarcity is normal. I hope this crisis is resolved soon.”
SMC supplied nearly 105 million litres (ML) less water on Tuesday. On Monday supply was about 25% less than normal of 1,250 MLD (million litres per day).