Residents losing millions of gallons of Narmada water to leakages amid acute shortage

Mhow: Amid acute water shortage in city due to an exceptionally dry spell and depleting groundwater level, millions of gallons of Narmada water is wasted due to leakage in pipelines every summers.

Reason: Ageing infrastructure crying for proper maintenance. A public health engineering retired official Ajay Gupta, who was in-charge of the Narmada project pipeline between Indore and Mhow said, “Many sections of the Narmada pipelines, which were laid decades ago across different phases, have deteriorated due to corrosion, soil movement, and constant high pressure causing leakage.”

He said poor maintenance, construction defects, third-party damage during road work and inadequate monitoring have added to the woes.

Residents are being asked to save water and install rainwater harvesting system, but millions of gallons of Narmada water is lost due to leakage before it reaches home and the incidents are not declining.

On Thursday, Narmada Phase-3 pipeline burst due to a small leakage near the periphery of Garrison ground in Mhow. The pipeline was repaired during late night hours in Mhow. But residents of Indore, Mhow, Rau and Rajendra Nagar grappled with water shortage the subsequent day.

The leakage in the pipeline occurred due to chipping off of welding on a joint on it. This pipeline was comparatively new, still leakage happened, raising a serious concern over the old ones.

The burst was latest in a series of at least half a dozen recent breaches and leaks along the same pipeline carrying water from Jalood in Mandleshwar to Indore. Recently, a burst near Bherughat on the Indore-Khandwa road occurred, highlighting what experts and officials describe as systemic vulnerabilities.

As millions of gallons of Narmada water gush out unused on roads and fields due to leakage, residents in affected colonies have to endure long queues for tankers and severe shortages, worsening daily hardships in one of India’s fastest-growing urban centres.

A 55-year-old resident Ravi Mehroliya, whose house was about 100 metre from the point where the pipeline burst recently told TOI that he saw water oozing out of the crack in the joint when he was taking his dog for a walk in the open area near his house. Realising the problem, he informed the PHE officials but, no one turned up for repairs.

When contacted, the present in-charge of the project Jimmy Robert said, “Nobody informed us. Our patrolling team reported to us about the leakage three days before the burst occurred. We had a plan to repair it but we needed a shutdown of the water pumping from Jalood. Because of summers, we were not getting permission for a shutdown and the pipeline burst.”