Water Management in Jammu City, India

Presently, the Jammu city is supplied from 6 water treatment plants and about 250 tube wells having total installed capacity of 412 MLD. This installed capacity of 412 MLD, produces 227 MLD out of which 100 MLD is consumed, whereas the requirement of water for Jammu is 125 MLD. The empirical estimates of water loss/wastage are 40-50 percent as water audit is not in practice.

Jammu has already utilized full capacity of River Tawi and now has an eye on Chenab Water. Presently every pinch of water scarcity is met with tapping groundwater. The Jammu city water supply is 100% electricity dependent and failure of electricity for long period can become disastrous. With the lowering of water table due to drought it becomes difficult to tap lowered water table and the cost of pumping also increases with replacement of pumps with higher duty pumps.

Drilling of more and more tube wells not only create pathway for abstraction but also pathways for contamination if tube wells are not sealed for sanitary protection. Most of tube wells are poorly designed and constructed, and are located near dirty nallahs, canal and ponds and are vulnerable to contamination. The Ranbir canal has virtually become a foul smelling gutter and dirty water from them can easily seep into these drinking water tube wells posing health hazard to the water consumer. The threat is not only from bacteriological contamination but also from chemical contamination from fertilizers and pesticides used in farming.  

The problem is not of water scarcity but manmade water crisis due to bad and poor management of water. A research on Jammu water supply shows that 87.4 percent  of household are covered by house connection,  56 percent  household get water supply for less than an hour per day, 96 percent  household spend extra money besides paying water tariff on purchasing water , pumping, electricity consumption and on treatment methods which range from boiling, chlorination and installation of commercial filters. 60 percent households are dissatisfied with quantity as well as quality of water supplied, 55 percent household are not satisfied with punctuality of daily services.

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