Heavy silt affects water supply to Shimla

Tribune News Service

Shimla, August 8

Shimla Jal Prabandhan Nigam Limited (SJPNL) will explore the feasibility of building check dams upstream of its water scheme at Giri river to prevent silt from reaching the pumps.

Water on Fourth Day

Even as the region is in the middle of intense monsoon, peripheral areas like Totu, Majaith and Chakkar are getting water on the fourth day. Even in the core Shimla areas like Chapslee, water distribution timings have been affected.

The river has seen “unprecedented level of silt and turbidity” this monsoon, forcing the SJPNL to supply water on the fourth day in some localities of the city. “Silt and turbidity have been very high this season, and it has badly hit pumping at Giri Water Scheme. In the last 15 days, we have received only 5-6 million litres water per day against around 18 MLD for about 10 days. When there’s such a drop in supply, the schedule is bound to get affected,” said SJPNL MD Pankaj Lalit.

Even as the region is in the middle of intense monsoon, peripheral areas like Totu, Majaith and Chakkar are getting water on the fourth day. Even in the core Shimla areas like Chapslee, water distribution timings have been affected. “We are not denying the problem, but it’s not possible to pump water amidst such heavy silt and turbidity. We are, however, working on some measures so that we don’t face such situation in the future. Exploring the feasibility of check dams is one such step,” said Lalit.

The SJPNL says that due to rampant development work along Giri river, including the construction of several roads and dumping of muck in the catchment area, the problem of silt and turbidity seems to have become unmanageable. “Check dams could be one of the ways to control silt. Its feasibility would be checked,” said Lalit.

Besides, the SJPNL hopes that the two storage tanks it is building at Dhalli and Peterhoff would be completed within six months. “These tanks will give us an additional 17 million litres storage capacity in the city. Once we have so much water stored, minor disruption in pumping and supply would not affect the distribution much,” said Lalit.

The snag in power supply is also one of the major reasons for disruption in pumping and supply. “We are discussing the situation with the Electricity Department to ensure supply disruption due to power snag is reduced to the minimum,” said the Managing Director.

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