More than five lakh Jharia residents are facing disruptions in water supply due to a clogged pipeline at Jamadoba water treatment plant after the water level at Damodar increased in the aftermath of Cyclone Yaas.

The residents face a perennial water crisis for various reasons including repeated leakages in water supply pipeline, technical snag in motors and periodic strikes carried out by the employees at the treat plant.

A team of senior officials of Jharkhand Mineral Area Developement Authority led by executive engineer and technical member Indresh Shukla on Friday visited the plant to take stock of the problem and instructed the officials of water supply division to fix the problem at the earliest.

Anup Sao, former councillor of Ward Number 37 of Jharia, said,“The residents of Jharia are compelled to face water crisis on several pretexts including repeated leakages in water supply pipeline, technical snag in motors of WTP, periodic strike carried out by the employees owing to non payment of salaries and even when the water level increases during monsoon.”

“Not only during cyclone but also during monsoon when water level increases in river due to release of water from Tenughat dam of Bokaro, similar problem is faced several times as hyacinth and other plant parts obstruct the inlet of intake well of WTP affecting water treatment and resultant lack of water supply,” said Sao.

“Even in this age of technology manual cleaning of inlet pipeline of intake well is carried out with the staff sometimes risking their lives and entering the river to clean the pipe against the strong current of water delaying the fixing of the problem,” said Sao and added that he can’t understand why a mechanical cleaning arrangement has not been made.

JMADA Executive Engineer, Indresh Shukla said, “The problem has been fixed now after the cleaning work and water supply is likely to be restored by tonight or tomorrow morning in Jharia.”