SHILLONG: The apathy of PWD and lack of response from the Army have delayed the laying of pipes to provide sufficient water to the city residents through the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme stage III.
Local MLA SK Sunn visited the Mawphlang dam, construction site of new intake well and others in the presence of PHE officials and the media.
According to Sunn, the PHE Department cannot assure proper water supply to the consumers unless all the cast iron pipes of the existing project are replaced with D.I. pipes as envisaged in the third phase of the project.
60% water goes waste
Sunn said 60per cent of water goes waste due to leakage of existing pipes and the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme phase III was meant to reduce the leakage to 15 per cent by laying new pipes.
Though the laying of the gravity main from Mawphlang to 6th Mile and 4½ Mile in Upper Shillong is almost completed, the gravity feeder main for Mawlai Nongkwar is stuck between the road at Umshyrpi as the Army is yet to give a permission to lay the pipe.
Moreover, the gravity feeder main to feed Nongmynsong town and Pynthorumkhrah is stuck in between Polo and MES Hospital as the Army is also yet to give permission.
The gravity feeder main to feed Nongthymmai reservoir at Lawjynriew is yet to be commissioned, though it was completed.
PHE officials said with the fund of Rs 174 crore, only 60 percent work has been completed under stage III of the project.
PWD yet to clear hurdle
When asked, Sunn told reporters that the deputy chief minister in-charge PWD Prestone Tynsong had assured in the Assembly in March-April this year that he will take steps to complete the laying of pipes.
Sunn informed that he had raised the issue during the last budget session of the Assembly and the assurance of Tynsong was that PWD will not stand in the way of development.
However, the assurance has not become a reality.
SK Blah, chief engineer of PHE, informed that laying of distribution networks in Shillong is yet to resume.
Sunn recalled that during the tenure of HDR Lyngdoh as PWD Minister and Shitlang Pale as PHE Minister, an understanding was reached between the two departments allowing PHE to lay the distribution networks with DI pipes all around Shillong as envisaged under phase III. However, after Lyngdoh was shifted from PWD, permission for PHE to lay the pipes was revoked.
Intake well
As part of phase III, the works for the construction of intake well where pump house will be constructed on top of the intake well is on a slow place.
The work started two years ago, by M/S Tantia Construction Ltd.
The construction company is yet to assure the PHE department that the cutting edge (lowest portion of intake well) is resting on safe bearing strata and that increasing the load through construction of pump house will not sink the well further down. Regarding the construction of intermediate pumping stations, Tantia Construction Ltd is yet to complete the excavation works to create necessary space for construction of the component.
Pumping system
Sunn said during his tenure as Executive Engineer (PHE),the defect in the pumping system of (Phase I & II) of the existing project was rectified through the installation of third stage booster station on January 31, 1996.
Following the successful replacement of pumping machineries of both stage I and stage II and pumping station of the project in 2007-08, water could be discharged into the water treatment plant directly without the booster station and the water works at Mawphlang is now in operation 24 hours a day providing about 51.30 million liters of water per day.
