As the summer peaks, so have the woes of Gurgaon. The Millennium City has been witnessing 8-10 hours of powers cuts a day even as it grapples with its worst ever water crisis, with supply plunging to an all-time low of 15% of the usual volume in many areas on Sunday.
The water shortage, affecting as many as 65 residential colonies in new Gurgaon, has been getting worse for the past two weeks. “I have been living in this city for the last 11 years, and I have never seen such a water crisis,” said Sudhir Kapoor, secretary general, DLF City RWA.
Meanwhile, shortage of coal, coupled with major technical faults at a number of power plants, has resulted in a 15% shortfall in electricity. B K Aggarwal, treasurer of Park View Condominium on Sohna Road, said due to long power cuts their diesel consumption for gensets has increased three fold in the past month.
The story is no different in other apartments. There were reports of lifts not working in some of the multi-storey condominiums due to the overworked gensets developing snags.
Officials of the government-owned discom blame the crisis on a 15% shortfall in supply. The current electricity demand in Gurgaon is 200 lakh units while the supply is 170 lakh units.
“Gurgaon’s power demand is almost 50% of the electricity that southern Haryana districts need. Our distribution system, including transformers and feeders, has been augmented and there are hardly any problems when it comes to power distribution. However, if the frequency is low or there is less supply, we have hardly any control over the power cuts,” said superintending engineer Subhash Deswal.
While residents are sweating due to erratic power cuts, the state government has expressed its helplessness.
Purchasing power in the open market through bidding is not a viable option, said state power minister Ajay Singh Yadav.
Yadav said two power generating units in Yamunanagar having a capacity of 300 MW each are shut. A 600 MW capacity unit in Khedar plant and another in Jhajjar district, are also not generating power. “There is close to 1,700 MW power shortage in Haryana. The situation might get normal in the next two months,” the minister said.
Yadav added that the state was also facing a severe coal shortage.
The water crisis too has peaked along with the maximum temperatures in the season. The worst hit area were DLF phases 1 and 3, areas which come at the fag-end of the HUDA water supply line.
“At the boosting stations, a number of pumps are dysfunctional, and the recurring problems on the power front have made the situation worse,” said Sudhir Kapoor of DLF City RWA.
Kapoor added that the maintenance companies have been hiring high-capacity tankers to fill their underground water reservoirs.
For the most part, residential colonies in Gurgaon depend on canal water supplied by HUDA lines which is augmented by utilizing the fast-depleting groundwater. According to Kulwant Singh, a resident of the National Media Centre and the general secretary of the local RWA, dependence on groundwater in his area has increased significantly.
“Our colony is getting only 15% of its daily requirement. Therefore, we are depending a lot on groundwater,” said Singh. Residents in areas where groundwater isn’t sufficient in quantity or quality rely solely on private water tankers, whose costs vary from Rs 500 a day in the old city to Rs 1,500 a day.
–Courtesy:TOi