By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: Power Minister AT Mondal has asserted that the officials of power department have been directed to examine the water leak at Umiam stage 1 power house at Sumer in Umiam.
The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) has come in the news for wrong reasons for lack of proper maintenance of Umiam power house resulting in leak of water coupled with the plight of the residents of Umiam colony who are not getting pure drinking water.
It is reported that the leakage has been left unattended for more than four and half years.
Sources informed that around 300 employees and families living in the departmental quarters at Umiam MeECL colony, are not getting pure drinking water.
The residents of the colony also alleged that MeECL does not purify the water coming from the source at Mawiong and instead stores the water directly to the tanks since the alum filter and the pressure filter inside the filter house are not in order for years.When contacted, Executive Engineer Road and building M Mawnui said that the water is being treated before it is supplied to the colony.
“We are doing treatment with water before it is being supplied to the colony,” she stated while adding that the water is also being supplied from the bore well.
Reacting to a query, Mondal said that the officials have already been deputed to find out the problem and to correct the anomalies if any. The drinking water source at Mawiong stream, a few kilometers from Umiam, has been used to supply water to Umiam Me.E.C.L colony since the inception of Umiam Hydro Electric Project in 1960s.
There are also reports that many MeECL officers and their families posted at Umiam do not stay in Umiam staff quarters due to the lack of adequate facilities including scarcity of clean drinking water.The government is incurring loss as the department has to pay house rent to the employees who do not stay in government quarters.