Use bucket, not shower, to take bath: GMADA appeal to Mohali residents

With several parts of Mohali district facing acute drinking water shortage in the peak summer season, the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA) today appealed to the residents to wash utensils with water in tubs and buckets instead of running tap water, use mugs rather than flushing toilets, and use buckets filled with water instead of shower to take a bath for the next two months.

Watering of lawns, washing cars and courtyards with hosepipes, and use of tullu pumps have been strictly prohibited for optimum water supply to the residents till July 30. Those indulging in wastage of water would be fined as much as Rs 10,000. The water connection of the repeat offenders will be terminated, GMADA has warned residents in a recent public notice.

So much for the convenience of its residents!

While the residents are asked to follow all austerity measures, GMADA, on its own part, continues to squander all rainwater and fails to reuse waste water.

The development authority’s own waste water recycling is abysmally low. Its major sewage treatment plants (STPs) at Aerocity, Sector 83 and Eco City are barely recycling waste water. Tertiary water supply lines are yet to be made fully operational.

GMADA Chief Engineer Anuj Sehgal said, “The Aerocity STP has started partially. In three-four months, all three major STPs will become functional.”

“GMADA has made a weird appeal. Every responsible citizen should make judicious use of water. On the one hand, GMADA cannot operationalise its tertiary water supply lines for the past three years, while on the other, they are asking residents to wash utensils in buckets,” said Mohan Mahajan, a resident of E-Block at Aerocity, adding that for the past one month, houses on the first and second floors of A, B C, D, E, F, G and H blocks were not getting water. “If residents of these areas don’t use pumps, what else should they do,” he questioned.

G-Block resident Arshleen Ahluwalia said, “Two months ago, GMADA had started supplying tertiary water on a trial basis. As the water was too dirty, the supply had to be stopped. Since then, the authority sends water tankers to irrigate parks.”

Sector 67 resident Sanjeev Madaan, who is associated with an organisation handling around 135 MC parks in Mohali, said, “I am not aware if recycled water is used in any park in Mohali city. If we are irrigating parks and washing cars with tap water, then it is a sheer wastage of precious resource.”

Chandigarh