Water supply from Opa to Panaji restored

NT NETWORK

Ponda

As the floodwater at the Opa water works subsided on Saturday, the water resource department (WRD) managed to resume water supply from the 40 million litres per day (MLD) treatment plant to Panaji. However, residents of Ponda, Priol, Marcaim, Shiroda and Cumbharjua will have to wait for another day for the water supply to be restored, said WRD officials.

Executive engineer Nivrutti Parsekar said the 55 MLD water treatment plant, which caters to the needs of Ponda taluka and Cumbharjua area, was completely submerged and all the seven pumps had been affected by the floodwater.

“All the pumps have been sent to Vasco for heating; once we receive them, water supply to the mentioned areas will be resumed slowly. Pumps require 12 hours for heating and only two pumps

can be heated at a time. Considering this, by Sunday afternoon, two pumps will be ready and using them, around 20 MLD of water supply will be restored first. Later, all other pumps will be used once they are available,” said Parsekar.

He further said the 40 MLD water treatment plant, catering to the water needs of Panaji, was not affected as much as the treatment plant catering to the needs of Ponda.

Stating that Opa had never witnessed such a flood as was seen on Friday, Parsekar said even the 33 KV substation located at a height was flooded, forcing the officials to shut down the plant totally.

It may be noted that due to the flooding of the Khandepar river on Friday, pumping stations at the Opa water works had submerged resulting in damage to the pump house. As a result, water pumping had been temporarily suspended. The WRD had informed that water supply to Ponda and Tiswadi taluks would be restricted till July 26.