Uttarakhand in deep waters BD Kasniyal 
Residents of Pitthoragarh queue up to get water from a tanker and a water source. Tribune photosUttarakhand is reeling under severe drinking and irrigation water crisis. The water crisis, which has diverse faces, is causing much hardship to women as they have to spend hours and tread long distances to get water.
Water taps have gone dry, natural sources have dried up, the rivers from where pumping schemes are running have also started showing symptoms of an impending water crisis and the hand pumps dug by the Uttarakhand Peyjal Nigam are now harvesting water from further depths.
According to the Water Resource Ministry of Uttarakhand, out of total 39,967 habitations in Uttarakhand, 783 habitations, including 606 in rural areas, are dry despite government efforts to provide water as there are no water sources near these habitations.
“Out of these waterless habitations, Pauri district has the highest 137 habitations in rural areas and nine in urban areas followed by Tehri where there are 114 such rural habitations.
“In Haldwani, 40 rural localities and 16 urban localities have no drinking water source,” said Prakash Pant, Uttarakhand Water Resources Minister.
According to the drinking water survey in 2003, out of 39,967 habitations in Uttarakhand, 20,355 were fully covered, 14,091 were partially covered and 4,730 were not covered. But according to the state’s Drinking Water Ministry, on April 1, 2009, the number of fully covered localities was 26,828, partially covered localities were 9,404 and 2,948 were not covered.
“Out of our target of 1,220 localities where drinking water has to be provided, 938 projects have been completed by March 7,” claimed Pant.
Uttarakhand finds itself in a water crisis even as the summer season is just getting heated up. “We distributed water in 225 villages and 125 towns through tankers. We have dug 250 new hand pumps and 56 infiltration wells last year, but as this year’s summer starts, we are preparing for a crisis,” said an official of the Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan.
The official said that high temperatures was one of the main reasons of the crisis as traditional sources have depleted. Pumping of water has been disturbed due to decrease in electricity supply and some old pumping schemes have not been repaired.
“In as much as 38 per cent of traditional water resources in the state, discharge has gone down by 50 per cent in the past 10 years. This is a result of land being left without cultivation by local residents,” claim officials.
Haldwani is the commercial capital of Kumaon. The Guala river is the main source of water for the residents of this town.
As a result of the receding water level of the Guala, coupled with less availability of electricity, the 3.25 lakh denizens of Haldwani are getting less than 30 cusecs of water per day.
The fertile fields of Bhabar, which need 128 cusecs, are also running short of irrigation water.
In the Terai and Bhabar area of Kumaon region, even hand pumps dug at a depth have stopped yielding water.
In Nainital where the drinking water demand reaches 20 MLD per day during the peak tourist season, only 14 MLD is being supplied.
“This is because the surrounding peaks of the Naini Lake have received very low rainfall this year,” said MH Khan, Secretary, Drinking Water, Uttarakhand.
In Almora and Pitthoragarh towns, the traditional water sources have dried up. Almora town depends on the pumped water from the Kosi river which is also dying out.
“We are able to operate only two pumps out of three installed in the Kosi,” said an official of the Jal Sansthan.
“In Pitthoragarh town, we need 11.05 MLD water per day but we are getting only 9.96 MLD. 25 per cent resources in rural areas have dried up due to scant rainfall during winter,” said DK Mishra, Executive Engineer, Jal Sansthan, Pitthoragarh.
Bageshwar is one of the worst hit districts in Kumaon after Champawat. The main rivers - Gomti and Saryu - contain one-fourth of the water they contained once. As many as 61 villages in Kharahi Patti in Bageshwar district have also been hit. “If I happen to come back to my village 15 years from now, the rivers around the village would have dried up. My children would not believe that these rivers were full of water once,” said Nitin Bhatt, a native from Bageshwar who now stays in Lucknow.
Not only is the drinking water insufficient, the high-yield paddy fields in Garudh valley have dried up.
The 30,000 residents of Lohaghat, Champawat, Tanakpur and Banbasa town of Champawat district are going through their worst water crisis in the past five years.
Though Jal Sansthan officers are trying to supply water through tankers, but villages far from the main road do not have a solution to the crisis.
The blocks worst off are Gangolihat Didihat and Berinag of Pitthoragarh district. Some residents of the 24 villages of Bel Patti in Gangolihat have left their villages in search of water, said Thakur Singh Bhandari from Ganura village in Bel Patti.
Like Kumaon, the Garhwal region has also been hit. Dehradun, Mussoorie and Pauri town are suffering the most.
“In Pauri, more than a dozen traditional water sources have almost dried. The town needs 4 MLD water per day for its 45,000 residents, but only 1.5 MLD is available,” said Lalit Mohan Kothiyal, a journalist from Pauri.
The Sri Nagar Pauri pumping scheme needs to be repaired, said Kothiyal. Tehri dam has also been affected by the dip in water level. “The level in Tehri dam has fallen to 741m against 820m during April last year. If it goes down to less than 740m, electricity generation at the project will be hit,” said an official of the THDC on the condition of anonymity.
Every town in the state, including those in Terai region, is witnessing speedy depletion of water sources. According to Jal Sansthan information, almost 30 lakh people in the state are dependent on natural sources for their daily drinking water needs.
Only six lakh families in the state have a water connection while 2.5 lakh families are travelling more than 5 km to fetch water daily. The situation is getting grim every passing day.
