Helpless hoteliers advising tourists to postpone visit to Shimla.
It’s more than rationing this time as the locals are currently getting water after a week or not even after that, driving many of them out of Shimla till the situation eases.
While tourists are still coming here, for the first time, the helpless hoteliers have to politely advise their most awaited guests not to visit Shimla till the water scarcity persists.
“The hotels are not provided tankers by civic body as per court order two years back.
So we have to buy private tankers to fulfil requirement in scarcity.
For many years now, Shimla residents have not got a daily water supply.
The situation over last week however acquired alarming proportions with people coming out on streets, keeping the government on toes, so much that Chief Minister, Jai Ram Thakur is personally monitoring the water supply situation.
In Shimla, even as management of water distribution has always been an issue, the water crisis is not something that occurred in just one year.
Supply from Ashwani Khadd water supply scheme, which catered to one third of the city in lower parts, had to be scrapped two years back, after the worst ever outbreak of jaundice, which had reportedly claimed 30 lives.
While water is always a political issue in Shimla, no government has so far thought of checking unabated concrete growth in the city, augment existing schemes as per demand of growing population or protect the catchment areas of water sources for continuous supply.