When Shimla queued up for water

Taps in Shimla went dry this summer, posing an unprecedented water crisis in the hill town. Adverse climatic conditions are believed to be the main factor for reduced flow in streams. Vikas Vasudeva reports on the failure of State governments to check unplanned development and exploitation of water resources.

June 16, 2018 12:02 am | Updated 10:51 am IST

Residents wait to collect drinking water from a truck. In many instances, police had to accompany trucks supplying water as fights often broke out.

Residents wait to collect drinking water from a truck. In many instances, police had to accompany trucks supplying water as fights often broke out.

Sixty-eight-year-old Singhu Ram Shandil sits on a bank of the Nauti-Khad, a stream in Gumma, Himachal Pradesh, about 45 km from the State capital Shimla. As he watches the muddy water gush by — after the heavy downpour on June 8 — his eyes shine with hope. With a prayer on his lips he appeals to the gods to intervene and end the unprecedented water scarcity in Shimla. There is a tinge of anxiety in his voice as he expresses concern about the possibility of the stream turning dry again in a few days if the rain subsides.

Over the past few years, Shandil says, rainfall has been erratic. When compared to the past, there has been a fall. “Long dry spells and then intermittent heavy downpours have become the new normal, adversely impacting the lives of locals when it comes to using water for drinking or irrigation purposes,” he says.

Shimla was in the news recently when the hill town experienced acute water shortage since the last week of May this summer after water almost dried up in the Nauti-Khad stream. The water body is one of the key sources feeding Gumma, which is Shimla’s oldest water supply scheme. The supply system was commissioned in 1921-22 by the British. On May 25, water discharge in the stream was as low as 9.39 million litres per day (MLD); on usual days, the average is between 18-20 MLD.

 

“The stream nearly dried up towards the end of May. As far as my memory goes, I have never seen this stream turning dry in the last 40 years. But there has been scant rainfall over the last few winters here. In the catchment, natural springs are vanishing. The vegetation pattern has changed. Tree cover is shrinking and unscientific dumping of debris and muck in water streams is rampant,” says Shandil, who retired as a pump driver from the Gumma water supply site in 2007.

He points out that it’s not just the drying up of the stream that disturbs residents but also the increasingly erratic pattern of rainfall. In fact, this is even more worrying. “On June 8, it rained heavily. The water in the stream is gushing but with it comes silt which will force the water system to stop operations. Supply will also be hindered. My point is that if it rains less there is a problem and if it rains in excess the problem of inadequate water supply will still persist because the pumps here won’t work optimally if there is heavy silt,” he adds.

His concern is not without reason and is echoed by an official at the Gumma pump house. He confirms that on the morning of June 9, the ‘settling tank’ (where the silt settles) — which was constructed in 1981-82 — was closed due to the high level of turbidity caused by silt. Interestingly, of the two tanks, the ‘settling tank’ built by the British in 1921-22 is the one that appears to be the more reliable one and is still in use. This tank, which was built to cater to 5.45 MLD, is now being used to manage 10 MLD, nearly double its capacity.

Ram Krishan, a junior engineer, says, “While the pumps erected by the British were put out of use in 1995, the pipeline laid by them to transmit water to Craignano is still working efficiently. You must remember that it is 100 years old. Most of the infrastructure set up by British here at the Gumma site is still in good shape and being used.”

Indiscriminate exploitation

In Gumma, a tiny village with a population of a little over 1,100, , Jamna Das, who has been in the business of mending shoes for years, says he has not seen water drop to such low levels. For him it’s not just poor rains this season but also the increasing number of tube wells near the stream bed uphill which is an important contributing factor behind the decline in water. Unscientific disposal of debris in water streams is another cause.

“People are installing more and more tube wells in the catchment area. With mechanisation, the tendency of over consuming water has increased, resulting in a depletion of groundwater. Several connecting roads have been laid in villages. In the process, the debris that is created is disposed of indiscriminately — thrown down the hills into the water streams and blocking the natural course of water bodies,” he says.

Sagar Das, who is engaged in vegetable and fruit farming, offers similar reasons for the sorry state of affairs. “This year, due to water scarcity, I was barely able to irrigate my vegetables and fruits using the water mill. Most of farmers here have been facing similar hardships and have suffered crop losses,” he says.

Meera Devi, who is Gumma’s panchyat pradhan (village head), says that the water shortage has affected all residents to a great extent. “For irrigation purposes, farmers here can only draw water from the stream between 3 p.m. and 6 a.m.,” she says.

Potable water for Shimla town is mainly supplied from the sources at Gumma, Giri, Churat, Chair and Ashwani Khad. Of these, Gumma and Giri are the most reliable sources, contributing an estimated 73% of the total water supply. However, water from both these sources has very high turbidity especially during the rainy season. Although the Ashwani Khad source is not utilised, water from a spring at Koti Brandi is treated at the Ashwani Khad water treatment plant. A situational analysis report (May 2018) of the Greater Shimla Water Supply and Sewerage Project says that water from other sources is not considered to be reliable as the quantity decreases in the lean season.

While adverse climatic conditions are being seen as a reason for the recent water crisis in Shimla, there are others too. For example, this season, when many parts of the town did not receive water supply for as many as 12 days in a row, locals and experts blamed it on mismanagement by State agencies and the sluggish approach adopted by successive governments in addressing the problem.

Shimla largely depends on surface water sources such as springs and streams for safe water demand. It currently has an overall installed capacity of 54 MLD (about 65 MLD when Ashwani Khad was in operation). However, actual supply across sources is in the range of 35-43 MLD, which is significantly less than the demand for 45 MLD. The situational analysis report says: “The operations are sub-optimal given the wear and tear of ageing assets, weak legacy systems and practices, which result in low service levels, such as low per capita supply, unreliable supply hours (alternate day supply) and deteriorating water quality levels.”

“The distribution system in Shimla town is over a hundred years old and needs overhauling. Poor maintenance of pipelines, consistent leakage and illegal tapping of water are some of the issues that need to be addressed on a war-footing,” says 80-year-old Birender Singh Malhans, an environmentalist and a member of Heritage Advisory Committee of Himachal Pradesh.

He points out that till the late 1970s, key roads, which included the popular Mall Road, used to be cleaned with water supplied by tankers. But now, all that is a distant dream as government agencies find supplying even drinking water to be a Herculean task.

“Shimla has been known as an urban forest but is fast turning into an urban slum. The situation is alarming and it’s high time the State government swiftly moves to address the crises. Old pipe lines should be replaced or repaired suitably and construction of illegal buildings stopped. Also adopting rainwater harvesting techniques is the need of the hour,” Malhans adds.

Crisis explained

After growing public outrage over the acute water shortage, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has directed the Municipal Corporation to take immediate steps to stop water leakage and complete work on changing the main water supply line from Craignano to Dhalli. He has also issued directions to improve the water distribution system in the town. Distressed by the lack of recognition of the problem, there were even midnight protests by upset residents who marched towards the Chief Minister’s residence — an unusual sight in otherwise quiet and peaceful Shimla.

Malhans has a word of caution about the loss of flora and fauna in the water catchment areas. “In the last few years not just tree cover but also shrubs and grass have decreased in the catchment areas of Nauti-Khad and Gumma. The population in villages has increased and farming patterns have undergone a sea change. Earlier, people used to sow more pulses and wheat, which consumed less water and helped in maintaining soil fertility. But these days most farmers are cultivating vegetables due to which not just more water is being consumed for irrigation but it is also changing the soil profile because of the use of fertilizers,” he says.

“In past years even if there was a dry spell, streams used to have water flowing in them, the reason being that grass, shrubs and trees absorbed the rain and kept releasing it steadily for months,” he adds.

In Shimla and its surrounding areas, management of water supply and sewerage services has traditionally been split between the Irrigation and Public Health Department (IPH) and the Municipal Corporation of Shimla (MC). While the IPH was responsible for the bulk of water production and sewage treatment, water distribution came under the MC.

As an advocate for the need to modernise the system of distribution of water in Shimla town, Ramesh Chauhan, a retired assistant engineer from the IPH, points out that because of the hilly terrain, most water connection lines have an average length of 30 m. Connection lines are often installed overground and clamped to the surface. “When more consumers apply for connections in an area, new connections are created from the rider mains, that are in parallel to existing connections. This has resulted in high frictional losses, pressure issues and water losses from the service pipe because of leakage and the risk of pilferage,” says Chauhan.

Harish K. Thakur, a professor at Himachal Pradesh University who works on tribal issues and the environment, feels that the water crisis only reflects the sheer operational and strategic management failures of successive State governments in meeting the growing needs of the town and its suburbs.

“The Municipal Corporation and the IPH department have completely failed to meet the rising demand for water in the town. The extent of the problem can be gauged from the fact that this year, hoteliers in Shimla were even appealing to tourists to cancel their reservations and holiday plans in the region because of an acute shortage of water. Mismanagement in distributing water coupled with poor rains and the drying up of water springs has made the problem take on catastrophic proportions, with even the rural areas of Shimla facing an acute shortage of water,” he says.

“The crisis is a result of a failure of government agencies in exploring new sources of water to meet demand in the town,” he adds. Also, the delay in supplying water through tankers (when the water shortage started) well in time only aggravated the problem. And in that moment of crisis, Shimla’s Mayor, Kusum Sadret, who is the first citizen of the city, travelled to China, which was perceived to be insensitive and did not down go well with already anguished locals.”

Upset residents feel that the crisis — which was certainly not an overnight development — could have been averted had successive State governments been pro-active in addressing the unplanned development in the town that has taken place over the years. They also feel that better coordination among government agencies, including the IPH and the Municipal Corporation, would have helped address the issues to a great extent.

Says Deshbandhu Sood, president of Citizen’s Rights Protection Forum, “Illegal constructions have taken place and yet they have water connections. The number of home stays and hotels has increased manifold. The water policy of municipal corporation is flawed. In most cases, commercial meter owners are issued a bill after several months instead of receiving bills on a regular basis. Even in domestic connections, most of the bills are issued at a flat rate rather than being based on meter readings.” According to data in the State Economic Survey 2017, the total count of beds in hotel and home stays in Shimla has been put at 16,000 and 800, respectively.

The availability of water for municipal purposes is also going down due to competing demand from local vegetable growing farmers in the catchment areas of Shimla. In addition, because of the high tourist footfall during summer, water availability also reduces drastically as there is a very high demand. The town alone has a population of close to 2 lakh people, with over 1 lakh visiting and leaving it every day.

Action to reaction

After facing adverse criticism from several quarters and even censure by the Himachal Pradesh High Court, the State government is now taking steps to to ensure that the town doesn’t face similar crises in future.

The Chief Minister recently held a meeting with senior officers in various departments to review the measures being undertaken to improve water supply to Shimla town from various water sources. The officials have been asked to start work on short- and long-term plans so that most works are finished within a year and in time for the next summer season.

According to the Chief Minister, efforts are on to ensure the availability of more than 10 MLD for Shimla by enhancing the capacity of the Gumma, Ashwani Khud and Giri water sources from where water is supplied to the town. Besides, the Ashwani Khud area is to be checked to see if there is potential for more tubewells to be sunk. Check dams are to be built upstream of the Gumma and Giri water sources. Also, nine additional storage tanks are to be constructed in Shimla town that will help store an extra 17 MLD of water.

The government also expects work on the Chaba project to be completed within a year which shall provide an extra 10-15 MLD to the Gumma water source.

Rajesh Kashyap, a senior official at the IPH, says, “The work of replacing pipelines on the Gumma stretch is already under way from Craignano to Dhalli and Sanjauli to Ridge. Lightweight galvanised pipes have been laid between Dhalli and Sanjauli above the ground, instead of underground, which will ensure that leakages are easy to detect and repair.”

Kashyap, who is all praise about the quality of the British-era pipeline system that was laid to supply water to around 16,000 people in 1875, says that once replacement work is completed, water leakages of around 3-4 MLD would be plugged.

In addition, the State government is working on installing water treatment systems that use ultraviolet radiation technology at Ashwini Khad; it used to supply around 5 MLD of water to Shimla regularly. The intake from the Ashwani Khad stream was stopped after 2015 when there was an outbreak of jaundice in the town. Investigations traced the cause to the Ashwani Khad drinking water source. The failure of a sewage treatment plant that was upstream was eventually identified as the source of contamination.

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