Water crisis in Shimla - An analysis

 Dam on Giri to end Shimla’s water woes
Learning lessons from the recent fortnight-long water crisis in the capital city, a 22-m-high gated dam is being constructed on the Giri khud near Mahi Pul and plans are afoot to lift water from Chaba dam to Guma.
Both projects will be ready the next summer, giving about 40 MLD of water daily for two months that can mitigate the water shortage in the city in April and May, revealed project engineers.

• The dam will have 1.5-km-long submergence zone from Mahil Pul to Sainj and will cost Rs 52 crore,” said BS Thakur, a senior Himachal Power Corporation Ltd (HPCL) project engineer.
• This small-gated dam will be laid at Mahi Pul about 100 m downstream from the point on the Giri Khud from where the Shimla Jal Prabandh Nigam(SJPN) is currently lifting water for the supply.
• The HPCL has readied the detailed project report (DPR) of the Giri project and will soon seek forest clearance. There is no private land involved in the submergence zone and forest clearance is expected soon.

On the other hand, the government has dropped the construction of a similar low dam on the Guma khud. Instead, the Irrigation and Public health (IPH) Department has decided to lift the water of the Chaba dam through a pipeline linking it to the 20 MLD Guma water scheme.

“Once we link Chaba with Guma, we can lift water from Chaba dam, located 3 km downstream from Guma. The combined capacity can give 20 MLD water daily in case of water shortage in the city in summer months,”.Chief executive officer and MD, SJPN, Dharmender Gill said '.

The two projects would be funded by the state government once the DPR are sent for its approval. “We will reduce the water leakages from the present 25 per cent to seven per cent. We will have about 35 MLD to 40 MLD of water daily even during lean months that can be supplied in the city on an alternative day.

What led to the water crisis :

"The main water source for Shimla used to be springs and small streams originating from forests and the hills. Two years ago between December 2015 and March 2016 there was a Hepatitis epidemic that was cause by contaminated water from Ashwami Khad -- a spring from where Shimla used to get its largest share of water."
The Himachal Pradesh High Court, , put a blanket ban on use of water from springs around Shimla after unclean water from a sewage treatment plant contaminated the streams, resulting in an outbreak of jaundice that affected more than 500 people in the city.

• Sludge from a treatment plant at Malyana, which had a faulty sewage treatment system, was flowing into the Ashwani Khad. Apart from Ashwani Khad, Shimla also gets its water from Gumma, Giri, Churta and Seog.
• An Indian Express report from 2016 pointed out that since major reservoirs were not being used, Shimla was heading for a crisis. The Irrigation and Public Health Department had also shut down the Chair and Cherot reservoirs because of bad quality of water, the report had said.
• The fact the administration has done little to compensate for the loss of reservoir water, may have led to the current crisis. Shimla, located at the ridge of the Sutlej and Yamuna basins, requires 45 million litres of water daily (MLD) and it is only getting 18 MLD at the moment and they have made no amends after Shimla stopped getting water from its streams.
• "Haphazard urbanisation" and "wasteful use of water" were also to be blamed for the present situation in Shimla.
• The infrastructure of Shimla was built by the British in 1875 for a population of 16,000 people, but at the moment there are about 2,00,000 residents in the biggest city of Himachal Pradesh, add to that about 3 lakh tourists who visit the city each year.
• The increasing population isn't the only reason to blame for the present crisis.While the government had planned to set up a committee, under the chief secretary, 3 years ago, to get a loan from the World Bank which would finance lifting of 104 MLD of Sutlej water from the Kol Dam, such a committee has not been set up.
• Lack of snowfall and rainfall last year has also added to the problem.

What are the solutions for Shimla :
Lifting water won't be of help in the long run. Lifting water to a huge height is not cost effective. They must ensure that sewage does not get mixed with water through decentralised sewage treatment plants, Moreover, water from sewage treatment plants can be used for non-potable purposes like constructions, watering gardens.
Water needs to be looked at as a eco-system and not as a commodity in a decentralised manner.

By: Pooja Sharda