Come 2018 and the scarcity of drinking water in Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde will become a thing of the past.
This will be possible once the first phase of water treatment plant is complete early next year.
The works under first phase began last year and construction of intake weir, raw water transmission pipelines, and clear water reservoir and transmission pipes are to be built. Funds of about Nu 89.4 M were arranged from the Asian Development Bank. The second phase which includes works of main trunk line, distribution lines, water reservoir and maintenance of old reservoir will start right after the first phase is over.
“After the completion of the first project, we hope to give adequate treated water to the public,” said Mani Kumar Rizal, the Engineer of the Water Solution Division under Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde, adding that over two million litres of water can be provided to the residents daily.
Currently, some residents receive water supply for 24 hours, while some others see water gushing out from the tap only for 15-30 minutes. There are also some households who don’t get water at all.
“For those who get water briefly for 15-30 minutes, it is mainly due to effect of air tight pipes. Some residents receive water for 24 hours because they have fixed suction pipes to our main line and all the water released from thromde goes to their line, leaving some households without water all the time,” explained Mani Kumar Rizal.
Thromde officials also said due to old water pipes, residents are not able get all the water released by the thromde.
“Because of old distribution network and worn out pipes, almost 25 percent of water are leaked. Otherwise, Samdrup Jongkhar Thromde must have enough water,” added the Engineer, Mani Kumar Rizal.
Our Reporter Kinley Wangchuk in Samdrup Jongkhar said every day hundreds of residents travel to the industrial area to fetch water. The place is located some 500 metres away from the main town. Meanwhile, thromde has explored other alternatives such as making borewells to extract water with machine.
