Industries in deep water as sources run alarmingly dry

Come next week, Bhopal and nearby industrial areas like Mandideep and Pilukhedi will come to a grinding halt. One of the large industries and only company in India that manufactures graphite electrodes has shut its one 30- megawatt (Mw) unit due to water shortage.

All water sources in Dahod village feeding this most-thriving industrial town, Mandideep, run dry. Villagers are angry and can forcefully take possession of intake well of state entity that lift water from a reservoir — the only source of water left in the area any moment. For the first time the reservoir level has dipped to an alarmingly low with water bodies and submerged trees are now exposed since its creation in 1958.

 

Sever water crisis has also gripped nearby Pilukhedi (40 km north of Bhopal) industrial area where main artery Kolhans and Uljhawan river runs dry. Makers of famous brands like Coca Cola are largely dependent upon private water supply here. The government authorities have given up and are left with only three tube wells that may also run dry anytime in Pilukhedi. Shockingly the private suppliers lift water from contaminated sources and supply to industries.

With a total capacity of 992 million cubic feet per day Dahod reservoir has water left hardly for ten days. The villagers have no alternate water source for their animals. They want government to step in but authorities chew fat.

“What will happen when this reservoir will dry up?” asks a villager in Dahod. A similar question came from the chief operating officer P Vaidyanathan of HEG Limited, “We already have shut down one 30-Mw unit of our captive power plant due to water shortage. What will happen after a few more days?”

Most of the industries have no option but to procure water from private suppliers that have escalated cost of operations. Moreover state authorities have raised water supply rates for industrial use in Mandideep and Pilukehdi from April. “Water supply charges have also gone up from Rs 15 per kilo liter to Rs 17.25 per kilo liter. The private suppliers demand Rs 60 per kilo liter,” said Vaidyanathan.

Companies informed, water supply in Mandideep has touch alarmingly low this year. Also villagers confirmed that during the last fifty years, they had never seen (Dahod) reservoir going dry.

Although state government authorities admit that there is a sever water crisis in the area, they have no answer for solution to this increasing crisis.

“We are supplying water through our tube wells, Dahod reservoir will exhaust in a week or so, we will not be able to supply water to industries in Mandideep,” a senior official in Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigam, an entity that facilitates industries in Mandideep told Business Standard.

Mandideep; which boasts of an export basket of Rs 4000 crore and industrial biggies like Lupin, HEG, Vardhman and LT Overseas, requires at least 10 million liters of water per day against the existing supply of 2 million liter per day from all sources.

The hike in water supply rates by 15-20 per cent and further by 25-30 percent from next year has also triggered resentment against authorities.

“State agency AKVN supplies hardly fifty per cent of what a company like ours needs. We need 5000 Kiloliter of water and government supply has not touched even 2500 kilo liter this season,” a source in the company said.

AKVN has made make-shift arrangements of tube wells in Mandideep and Pilukhedi area but the water table has gone down to an alarmingly low. “Even tube-well can run dry any moment, there is no proper plan for industries as far as water supply is concerned,” alleged a consultant in Mandideep.

Insiders in government has also informed that finance department is reluctant to fund ailing state industrial development corporation (SIDC) as its closure is inevitable due to a multi-crore scam. The SIDC and its subsidiaries Audyogik Kendra Vikas Nigams have no immediate alternates to supply water in the industrial areas as nearby towns namely Bhopal, Budni and Hoshangabad area also facing sever water crisis.