Almost a 60-65 per cent drop in the availability of water at Gumma, Shimla's oldest supplier of drinking water, due to the drying up of the perennial Giri river is a crude reminder of the water crisis that had engulfed the capital of Himachal Pradesh in 2018. The drop in the water supply has rendered the water distribution system a complete mess.
With tourists' influx at an all-time high coupled with one of the hottest summers in north India, the taps have run completely dry in the town.
Even the concept of rationing water, introduced by Satluj Jal Prabandhan Nigam (SJPN) Ltd, has failed to work. SJPN is a special purpose vehicle created to man Shimla’s water supply and the water is made available to the residents after a gap of four to six days. However, it is not enough to even fill up their tanks fully.
Former Shimla Mayor Sanjay Chauhan said, “Plans drawn up by the SJPN Ltd to provide 24x7 water supply from this year, have already got watered down. The system is in a complete mess and there is no accountable person—neither the cabinet minister Suresh Bhardwaj, who is also Shimla MLA nor General Managers of the company to respond to the crisis”.
The total availability of the water from six different sources, prominently Gumma and Giri rivers, has dropped down to 34 MLD (Minimal Liquid Discharge) against the installed capacity of 47.75 MLD. This is expected to drop further in the next few days if there are no rains in Shimla.
Dr Dharmendra Gill, SJPN Ltd Managing Director holds additional charge of the company but the key officials posted to handle the supplies and distribution look totally lost in the crisis having no clues.
“I admit that a system, which we developed after the 2018 water crisis (the worst ever in Shimla’s history) seems to have crashed down. Secondly, due to prolonged dry spells, intense heatwave and climate changes, the water availability at two major sources has shockingly depleted this time," he added.
Against the installed capacity of 22 MLD, only eight MLD of water is available from Gumma while Giri river is down from 20 MLD to 13. Koti Brandi is supplying just 1.5 MLD against 5 MLD of water.
In 2018, Shimla ran out of water supply for eight days making headlines in the Washington Post and New York Times. It led to the intervention of the High Court. The water availability had dropped to 18 MLD against an average of 37-38 MLD in back then. The hoteliers had put up advising the tourists not to visit Shimla for the time being till the water crisis was not resolved.
During the two years of the Covid -- when tourists' footfall was negligible and also earlier -- the state government took a few measures to tackle the water scarcity and the supply was substantially augmented. The leakage from the old and worn-out pipes, which led to 35 to 37 per cent loss of water, were repaired and replaced. The water availability was quite surplus till this summer but now things seem to have fallen back, once again.
But Tikender Panwar, a former Shimla Deputy Mayor claims that Shimla‘s growth, both in terms of population and merger of new years, is creating a lot of stress on the system. There is also an increasing impact of climatic changes. Additionally, haphazard and unplanned construction activities and loss of green cover have added to the town’s water woes.
