GUWAHATI, July 26 � The Assam Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board (AUWS&SB) is implementing an augmentation scheme with an additional Central assistance. With the completion of this scheme, the AUWS&SB is targeting to cover around one lakh people.
However, consumers of its existing scheme have through a memorandum to the board�s Managing Director expressed their dissatisfaction over the service they are getting from the board.
Sources in the board told this newspaper that initially the board with its installed capacity of 7.5 million litres per day (mld) proposes to cover the areas from Hengrabari hilltop towards Ganeshguri point then to Gauhati Medical College (GMC) through the foothill road. It then proposed to cover the southern side of the Rajgarh Road, then the RG Baruah Road Tiniali to Geetanagar-Hatigarh Chariali and then cover both sides of the RG Baruah Road up to Ganeshguri, covering the Japarigog area too.
This scheme was commissioned in March 1996. After commissioning the scheme, the area of operation got extended on public demand to Rukminigaon/Rukmininagar, Jatia and Rupnagar areas.
The augmentation scheme was started in 2008 and it is expected to be completed by December this year, sources said.
Till now, the AUWS&SB has provided 7,800 connections, sources said.
The board detected recently 30 illegally operating pumps in Rukminigaon/Rukmininagar, Ganeshguri, Kacharibasti, Tarun Nagar, Shanti Path, Janapath, Ambikagiri Nagar, Rupnagar, Bhangagarh and Sarumataria areas, said the sources.
Load shedding is affecting the performance of the board, sources added.
The Nagaria Pani Grahak Surakshya Samiti, Guwahati, the association of the consumers of the AUWS&SB-supplied water, has complained that the quality of water supplied by the board to its consumers is poor. Moreover, the time schedule for supplying water is also erratic, it has alleged.
It has alleged that for quite a long time, the AUWS&SB has not taken any step to initiate corrective measures for improving its performance.
