Highlights Ranchi has declared a 'water emergency' and introduced rationing of water.

Ranchi has declared a 'water emergency' and introduced rationing of water. In December last year, the state government declared drought in the state.

In December last year, the state government declared drought in the state. Just about half of Ranchi's total water requirement is met every day.

RANCHI: For over two months now Ranchi Resident Rita Devi has missed out on work every third day. She is a municipal officer and lives with her husband and two children in Ranchi ‘s Hindkidhi, a largely middle class locality.

Once in every three days, Ms Devi and many other people in her locality queue up early in the morning to wait, sometimes till noon, for the government tanker that brings water for the locality. “But at the end of the day, I call myself lucky if I can fill even two buckets of water. Sometimes, we have to call in expensive private water tankers. There is no other way,” she says.

Jharkhand ‘s capital Ranchi, a city of 11 lakh people has declared a water emergency. In December last year, the state government declared drought in the state. It is among the 11 states in the country reeling under drought. The city needs 45 million gallons of water daily. But one out of the three dams that supply water to the city is almost dry and the water-levels in the other two are below the mean for this time of the year. This means that just about half of Ranchi’s total water requirement is met every day.

“Rainfall has been scanty this year. That is why the water level in the dams is very low. (And) that is why water is being rationed out of the Hatia dam. So that everyone can get some water. We are treating this as an emergency,” says state Water Resources Minister Chandra Prakash Chaudhary.

And, the bigger worry for the government and the people here is that summer is yet to peak.