Shimla is currently witnessing a major water crisis during peak tourist season with taps running dry for the eighth day in most parts of the city, forcing people to buy water at exorbitant prices and smaller hotels to cancel bookings as drinking water supply in the Queen of Hills fell to less than 50% of requirements, courtesy of a dry winter.
Following an acute drinking water shortage in Shimla, the Municipal Corporation is distributing water under police protection. Over 70 police personnel have been specifically deployed to deal with the situation in the water-deprived hill-station.
On Sunday night, about 100 people staged a midnight sit-in protest outside the waterworks office on the main Mall Road and the police stopped them from heading towards the residence of chief minister Jai Ram Thakur, who on Monday constituted a committee headed by chief secretary Vineet Chowdhary to monitor daily water supply.
A mineral water wholesale trader, Jasvir Singh told a news source that the demand for bottled water has increased by 50 to 60 percent due to water scarcity in Shimla. “Usually I supply 400 packs of water bottles but now the demand has increased to 700 plus for retailers,” he said.
The court asked municipal commissioner Rohit Jamwal and other municipal officials to appear in person on Tuesday to explain the reasons for the acute water shortage. Brij Mohan Chauhan, president of Himachal Bar Association, said, “We haven’t seen such a situation in the last 20 years. The government has failed to provide even drinking water to people.” Jamwal termed the situation unusual but seemed to suggest that the crisis has been in the making for some time. He said over the past three summers, water availability had plunged to 29 or 30 million litres per day.
The tourism industry in Himachal Pradesh’s Shimla has also been massively hit as tourists are cancelling their visits to the hill-station. The local hoteliers and others related to the tourism industry are worried as social media is flooded with news about the water crisis, preventing the inflow of tourists into the state.
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