In an unusual way of protest, a middle-aged man in Guwahati city bathed with dirty drain water on the streets to protest the protracted trouble in water supply across a major part of Assam’s main city.
Pradeep Barman, a resident of Guwahati’s Anil Nagar took an odd strategy to highlight disruption of water supply for the sixth day on Wednesday.
Mr Barman took out a container full of water from a drain and poured it on his body to demonstrate what the citizens have been resorting to because of the water shortage.
While bathing in the drain water, he sang an improvised parody song attracting the people of the locality and the passersby.
Mr Barman urged the Assam government to take action against the appropriate authority otherwise people would suffer in the ‘Smart City’.
The Guwahati Metropolitan Drinking Water and Sewerage Board had earlier issued a notice on November 14 announcing that the water supply would be interrupted for three days from November 15 in areas serviced by three reservoirs – Amiya Nagar, Leechubagan, and Ramsahill.
The Board, also known as the Guwahati Jal Board, clarified that the shutdown was vital to make a permanent arrangement for the water supply project by plugging all infrastructural loopholes.
However, the recommencement of the water supply was delayed, though the Guwahati Jal Board claimed the water supply was resumed on Wednesday.
But many areas of the city remained without water.
As per an agreement, signed earlier, Guwahati’s water supply project is aided and supported by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Another affected resident Prashanta Talukdar said that some people in Guwahati have been forced to buy water for the last two months because water supply connections were broken when tarmac was laid on the road.
He said despite the serious problem, the Jal Board has yet to take any corrective steps.
While talking to the media, Guwahati Mayor Mrigen Sarania said the water supply problem was due to some important work to upgrade the pipelines.
The mayor said that the engineers and workers of JICA have been working for the past few days in various parts of Guwahati to sort out the growing issues including frequent pipe bursts and other supply-related difficulties.
“Due to the ongoing upgradation work and maintenance, water supply would be disrupted for two more days,” Mr Sarania said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
