Saurashtra goes thirsty again as pumping station shut down for maintenance work

AT the time when the mercury is hovering around 40 degrees and sources of water having gone dry,drinking water crisis in hundreds of villages and towns of Saurashtra region is likely to worsen as supply of Narmada to them stopped from Friday onwards due to shutdown at pumping stations of Mahi-Pariaj and Narmada pipeline network.

AT the time when the mercury is hovering around 40 degrees and sources of water having gone dry,drinking water crisis in hundreds of villages and towns of Saurashtra region is likely to worsen as supply of Narmada to them stopped from Friday onwards due to shutdown at pumping stations of Mahi-Pariaj and Narmada pipeline network.

Hundreds of villages and towns of Bhavnagar,Amreli,Rajkot and Junagadh districts are completely dependent on Narmada water supplied by this extensive pipeline network as the region is reeling under a drought-like situation.

Gujarat Water Supply and Sewerage Board (GWSSB),a state government body mandated to supply drinking water in the state,sources water from Vallabhipur branch canal of Narmada near Navda village in Barvala taluka of Ahmedabad district and pump it to other districts.

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Navda pumping station has 22 heavy-duty electric motors and pumps with a cumulative capacity of pumping 400 million litres per day (MLD) water. From here,water reaches to villages of Junagadh situated 400 km away via Gadhda and Chavand pumping stations.

However,these pumping stations came to a standstill on Friday for a four-day shutdown.

The shutdown was required for capacity upgradation of Navda,Gadhda and Chavand stations. We are installing heavy-duty pumps at Navda pumping station to increase its capacity by around 100 MLD, Bhupesh Shah,senior manager of Gujarat Water Infrastructure Limited (GWIL),a state government undertaking which operates these stations,said on Sunday.

The Rs 400-crore upgradation project was sanctioned two years ago. The increase capacity would help is water supply scenario in the region as the monsoon is still away by almost a month, Shah further said.

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The pumping stations would start functioning from Tuesday but the water supply would be restored from Wednesday onwards only,he added.

Incidentally,this is the second shutdown at these stations in five weeks. They had remained closed on April 7 for routine maintenance work.

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