Andaman Administration announces curtailment in water supply

Port Blair, May 23 (UNI) Andaman and Nicobar Administration today took everyone by surprise when it announced serious curtailment in water supply in various parts of South Andaman.

According to the new curtailment schedule, water will be supplied once in every six days in South Andaman areas, beginning from today.

Although Andaman and Nicobar Islands receive rainfall nearly eight months a year and monsoon has already set in before schedule, parts of the archipelago is still reeling under severe water scarcity.''This means people in Andaman will be receiving water supply for just six days a month that too for a very limited time. This is height of mismanagement,'' Chief Spokesperson of Andaman's Congress unit K Ganeshan reacted.

Earlier, there were rumours in the city that Dhanikhari Dam, the lone water reservoir of South Andaman, has stored water which will last for only five days.

In spite of best efforts taken by the Administration to tide over the present water crisis, sufficient storage has not been generated in the Dhanikhari Dam even after setting in South West monsoon, as a precautionary measure, keeping in view the limited availability of water in the dam it has been decided to supply water once in five days, a public notice issued today by Andaman Administration said.

However, the public notice also mentioned that this curtailment is likely to last for a short period till the monsoon fully sets in improving shortage.

But, people and political parties allege that due to large scale 'mismanagement' in Andaman and Nicobar Administration, these lush green islands were facing acute water shortage.

Since last decade nothing concrete has been done to increase water storage capacity in this islands by Administration while the population has increased many-fold giving rise to this shortage, the Congress Chief Spokesperson added.

UNI