Voltage fluctuations are apparently to blame for a water supply shortage in East and West Shillong constituencies.
A meeting was convened today by Chief Secretary Donald P Wahlang, which was attended by the respective MLAs of the two areas, Ampareen Lyngdoh and Mohendro Rapsang.
The voltage instability is impacting on the ability to pump water to these parts of the city, Lyngdoh told reporters after the meeting.
She and Rapsang were assured that the power supply to Mawphlang, where most of the city’s water comes from, will be constant and uninterrupted.
“We have have been given the assurance in the meeting convened by the Chief Secretary that this issue will be immediately attended to,” Lyngdoh said, adding that residents are spending a lot of money to augment water supply to their homes.
“If an MLA like me in the last 15 days has spent Rs 12,000 for water in my home then one can imagine the impact this has on a common man. We have flagged these issues to the CS and Chief Minister and we are looking forward to the problem being sorted out at the earliest,” she said, adding that it was also informed that the Shillong Municipal Board will shortly be given an additional five water tankers to meet demand when such water crises emerge.
“We get our water from Umkhen, which is a major source, and we also get from the Greater Shillong Water Supply Scheme 1 and 2. GSW 3 was supposed to augment about 2 million litres of water per day to the city. This is supposed to be the magic number to augment the inadequate water supply we have been facing, especially in the last two years,” she said.
Adding to the water problem is that the Umkhen supply has been severed. Wahlang assured that this will be rectified. Phase 2 of the GSWSS 3 will be commissioned by December, Lyngdoh added.
