Agra battles water crisis

Large parts of the Agra city is facing acute water crisis with authorities marshaling tankers to digging tube wells in an attempt to fight the scarcity.The city is supported by municipal water which is drawn from Yamuna but has been facing water crisis for over a fortnight due to technical snags in the pumps which officials claim have been worked out.

"The pumps to lift Yamuna water have not been working to their full capacity due to technical faults," officials confirmed.However, the GM of Agra Water Works, an autonomous body under Agra Municipal Corporation, Manju Rani Gupta said that the technical snags have been taken care of and supply would be restored soon.She further said that the tankers have been put into service and tube wells are being networked to provide drinking water to the trans-Yamuna colonies.

But the social activists in the city say that the local administration has no idea how to address the acute water scarcity."Every year they make plans and promise relief, but as summer peaks its back to square one," activist Shravan Kumar Singh said.
 

"Had it not been for the ubiquitous private hand pumps and submersible pumps we would have seen a civil war erupting," another activist from River Connect Campaign said. 

• Drought
• Agra