Raiganj: Residents of several villages in Raiganj, North Dinajpur district, including Pirajpua, Bogram, Purba Bogram, Mehendrigram, Bijpur and Chhatrapur, have been grappling with a lack of fresh drinking water for over two months as the supply to these areas has been disrupted due to a prolonged power outage at the Pirojpur water project of the Public Health Engineering (PHE) department.
The crisis began when a tree branch fell on the electric wires supplying the Pirojpur pump house, severing its power connection. This incident halted the operation of the pump responsible for distributing water to the affected villages.
Jyotsna Roy, a resident of Chhatrapur, expressed her distress, stating: “Previously, we would get fresh drinking water from the Pirojpur water project of the PHE (department). But it stopped supplying water for more than two months.
Now, we are drinking water from roadside tube wells and facing different health hazards.
We informed our local Gram Panchayat members, but to no avail.” Abdul Kalam, pump operator at the Pirojpur water project, said: “The power connection of the pump house was disconnected after a tree fell on the electric wire more than two months ago.
The power connection has not been restored yet. We have informed the higher officials about the residents’ difficulties.” Shedding light on the complications hindering the restoration, Executive Engineer of PHE North Dinajpur Aniruddha Bhattacharjee stated: “More than two months ago, power was disconnected to a pump house after a tree branch fell on the electric wire. Some locals objected to using open electrical wires for the connection to the pump house. They demanded we use Aerial Bunched Cables instead of open wires for power connection to the machine for the safety of the locality.
But we have no such fund. The subject has been informed to the appropriate authority before. We expect the power will be connected soon for the restoration of water supply to the villages.”