EBM trying to fight water supply failure

Statesman News Service

MALDA, 26 NOV: The English Bazaar Municipality is trying to find out remedies to fight the failure of setting up water treatment plant on the river Mahananda for water supply to residents in the area.

The EBM is facing the problem of providing sufficient water to the residents in some parts of this town.

The Congress, Trinamul Congress and the BJP led board took initiative to make a detailed project report on surface water treatment plant seeking funds from the Centre directly but the board could not manage the funds owing to which the project has not been implemented till date.

The present leadership faces further shame as the neighbouring Old Malda Municipality, coming to power in the last election, has almost completed the surface water project for drinking water based on Mahananda.

The chairman of the EBM, Mr Narendranath Tiwari disclosed: “There is no ray of hope of the proposed project. We are held responsible for this delay due to lack of our technical knowledge to manage funds from both the state and the Centre”.

Though the chairman did not hesitate to blame the state and its urban development minister for non-cooperation in implementing the surface water treatment plant here, he said: “We are not sure about the viability of the project based on the river Mahananda and flow of sufficient water throughout the year which is important for the success fo the project”.

“Is it possible for us to bring raw waters from the Ganga, at least fifteen km from here, for treatment and distribution?”, Mr Tiwari asked.

“Finding no alternative we have decided to seek help from the Trinamul MP and Union minister for state for urban development, Mr Sougata Roy, so that he can help us setting up surface water treatment plant and press the state government to extend cooperation”, he said.

The water supply department of the EBM has reported the chairman that based on the present infrastructure for lifting water from under ground, it is difficult to meet the requirement of the demand for water in some areas where population and number of houses have increased. It may be noted that the state urban development minister, Mr Asok Bhattacharya, had asked the district administration and the public health engineering to supply arsenic free waters from its rural project located in Manikchak to meet the present problem and crisis. But after joint survey conducted by the PHE and EBM officials could not come to a decision to implement the project last year due to technical and financial reasons.