Dhanbad: More than 5 lakh residents of Jharia are facing water scarcity for over a month because of a delay in the repair of a 25km pipeline at Patharbangla locality near Bhaga station by Mineral Area Development Authority (Mada) owing to cash crunch.
Jharia residents have been suffering water crisis for over a month because of a leak in the 25km pipeline that supplies water from Jamadoba plant to Jharia.
Expressing concern, former councillor of Ward 37 of Jharia Anup Sao said, "Lesser supply of water creates lower pressure in the pipeline due to which several areas situated on higher altitude such as Upper Rajbari Road, Poddar Para and some parts of Koiribandh do not get any water for 2-3 days in a week."
Sahu said they had taken up the issue with Mada authorities several times, but they had cited funds crunch as the reason behind their inaction.
SDO of Jharia division of Mada Shravan Kumar said the repair work would cost Rs 10 lakh.
"The salaries of our employees are pending for more than 26 months.
Therefore, we are unable to repair the pipeline immediately.
We are waiting for some more funds after which we will issue a tender to implement the project through an agency as we are short-staffed," he said.
Kumar said they were also waiting for the right time to begin the repair work because it would necessitate stoppage of water supply for at least three days.
"Public notices will have to be issued in the newspapers informing people about the disruption of water supply," he said.