PINAKI MAJUMDAR
Jamshedpur, March 31: A threat of drinking water crisis looms large at industrial town Adityapur, located in Seraikela-Kharsawan district as the ambitious drinking water project is still pending in the absence of forest clearance.
Several residents have started buying potable water as the borewells in their residential premises as well as apartments turned defunct due to depleting underground water.
It seems the residents of this tiny township will have to wait for a minimum of two years to get tap water despite being provided with water connections and water meters at their houses by the agency entrusted to carry out the mega water project.
The ambitious project worth Rs 395 crores was launched in November 2018, six months after Adityapur Municipal Corporation (AMC) came into being.
The aim of the project being executed by Jindal Water Infrastructure Ltd was to provide tap water to 50,000 plus households by November 2021. Presently, only 8,000 households are getting tap water and the remaining 42,000 households are dependent on borewells.
Officials of Adityapur Municipal Corporation said the executing agency has already completed 75 percent of the project since the past one year, but the work is stuck up at the proposed water filtration plant (WFP) in Sapra village.
Even if the forest clearance is made available anytime now, it will take two years to construct the WFP.
Notably, because of new high rise buildings and mushrooming apartments, the water table at Adityapur has gone down considerably.
With peak summer around, the water crisis is only going to complicate things.
