Engineers of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said the water crisis cannot be resolved until the Rs 315-crore Dhapa Water Treatment Plant — work for which is yet to start — and the Rs 36-crore water treatment plant, that is under construction, start functioning.

“The scarcity of surface water in the area is an old issue. To supply adequate surface water to those areas we have taken up two projects. One is the water treatment plant coming up at Dhapa and another is the 15-million gallon water treatment plant in Garden Reach. Once these plants get functional things can be normal,” said a senior official of the KMC.

He also said the situation could improve if there was a political will. “We are constructing two water pumping stations in Daspara and Siriti in Behala. The one being constructed at Siriti is yet to be completed and will take some more time. The station at Daspara will be completed in a month. But to start the pumping station, we have to lay around 5.5-km pipeline for connecting the station to the booster pumping station,” he said.

Pleading anonymity, the official added that the ruling party and the Opposition are yet to reach a consensus on the issue. As a result the work is yet to be executed.

Mrinal Mondal, Member Mayor in Council (MMiC), water, said the civic authorities have taken up projects of around Rs 600 crore, including construction of water treatment plants and several pumping stations.

“We have several projects to solve the water woes in the city. Work is on but since all are big projects, it will take time to be completed,” said Mondal.

According to the MMiC, water, “A meeting was held between the Water Supply Department and the chairpersons of borough 13 and 14 to discuss the water crisis in Behala. We asked them to give us land where we can lay a pipeline for connecting the pumping station in Daspara to the booster pumping station located in Behala, Chowrasta. However, the chairpersons — belonging to the Trinamool Congress — said they will not allow us to lay pipeline on a 100-metre stretch just for the sake of opposing the projects.”

Ratna Sur, chairman of Borough 13, however, said: “In the last four years we have never been called by the MMiC, water. We tried to hold a meeting with him several times so that we can discuss water scarcity and reach a solution, but to no avail.”

Meanwhile, a department official added that the civic body loses 2 million gallon water as they do not have a reservoir to store water which is supplied by the Garden Reach plant in the last hour.

“If there was a political solution and we could use the Daspara pumping station, then we could use the 2 million gallon water that is at present wasted,” added the official.