The woes of more than five lakh Jharia residents who are already leading precarious life since December 6 due to more than 10 hours of load shedding being carried out by DVC on account of pending dues with JBVNL to the tune of Rs 2100 crore has been further aggravated due to disruption of water supply since Monday.

The latest water crisis has been triggered due to a technical snag that developed in the inlet pipeline of the Intake well of Jamadoba based water treatment plant of civic body, Jharkhand Mineral Area Development Authority (JMADA) responsible for water supply in Jharia and Katras.

Talking to The Telegraph Online on Wednesday, Rajesh Keshri, a resident of Hetli Bandh locality of Jharia, who operates a cyber café on ground floor of the his house said, “Though my business has been greatly affected due to power crisis that developed since December 6 but the water crisis that developed three days ago has brought life to a virtual standstill for us. Water supply from the Damodar water supply made by the civic body JMADA through its Jamadoba based water treatment plant is the sole source of water for us."

Echoing similar sentiments, Amit Sahu, President of Jharia chamber of Commerce and Industry, who also operates a residential lodge at the Jharia main market said, “The business which has been greatly affected due to the pandemic has been further affected due to lack of basic civic amenities like power supply and water supply. We can’t understand the reason for the delay in resolution of the water supply issue through the Jamadoba based water treatment plant affecting a population of around 5 lakh.”

Notably, the Jamadoba based Water Treatment Plant (WTP) complex of JMADA established more than 50 years ago comprises two WTPs including one of 9 million gallon per day capacity meant for supply water in Putki, Kendua, Karkend and Moonidih and another of 12 million gallon per day capacity meant for water supply in Jharia.

Pankaj Kumar Jha, Sub Divisional officer of Water Supply Division of JMADA said, “We have launched the repair work of inlet pipeline on war footing and water supply in likely to be restored by the second half of tomorrow.”