PANJIM: Water tankers made brisk business as the capital city faced water shortage on Friday after water supply got severely affected due to power failure at the Opa water treatment plant on Thursday night.
When contacted, PWD chief engineer Santosh Mhapne said that water supply was affected due to sudden fault in the 33 KV sub-station at Opa water treatment plant. He said that the fault was rectified and the 40 MLD plant started functioning from 6.30 pm on Thursday.
Assistant Engineer PWD, Works Division III, Sarita Shirodkar said that after rectifying the fault, water pumping was started and it took time to fill the water tanks in the city. Though water level was not up to the required level in the tanks, yet water was released to Panjim and surrounding areas. However, she admitted that the water pressure was low.
Shirodkar hoped that water supply would be normalised by Saturday. She said there were no requests for PWD water tankers. However, one tanker was provided to a private institution on Friday.
PWD works division III executive engineer Thomas Landez stated that there will be restricted water supply to Panjim, Taleigao, Santa Cruz and Sant Andre constituencies, all defence establishments and Goa Medical College (GMC), Bambolim, on Saturday, May 25.
Consumers are requested to bear with the inconvenience caused to them. Facing a severe water crisis, many people residing in residential colonies started desperately contacting water tanker. But water tanker could provide water to the hapless consumers stating that they had prior bookings.
A private water tanker owner Nazir Khan said, “We cannot provide water to our daily consumers because we are affected due to power outages. We have to fulfill our commitment first.”
Another private water tanker operator Sajjan mentioned, “We will deliver water by late evening after 6 pm, as we have received bookings to supply water much earlier and are out on the job.”
