Well without building any background I must confess that last week I was hit by absence of water in my place of residence in Shimla. So that led me to sit up and think of all the stories which started featuring in newspapers recently or the highly opinionated talk which I have been hearing in the social circles of the city. The whole discussion revolves around one particular issue and that is water. So here is an attempt to threadbare the whole issue behind water crisis in Shimla.

Most of the reports coming out in public, talk about the scarcity of water which is being attributed to 3 broad reasons. These are:

* Increase in the population of the Shimla town
* Increase in floating population of tourists visiting Shimla
* No substantial water supply works added by the I&PH department or Municipal committee in last few years.

The population of Shimla has increased from 1, 29,827 persons in 1991 to 1, 74,789 in 2001, recording a decadal growth rate of 34.63 percent. The floating population of the city was 75000 as per 2001 census. So effectively at any point of time the population of the city stands at approximately 2,50,000 people. As per the assumptions made in the Shimla Development Plan the population of Shimla Planning Area is anticipated to increase at the rate of 35 % during the decades of 2011 and 2021, which is likely to be 2, 35,970 and 3,18,560 respectively.

On the other hand the tourist inflow to the city has increased considerably. A survey shows that 18,22,059 tourists travelled to Shimla in Year 2005, of which about 3.4% constituted foreign tourists. However the average stay of tourist in Shimla is about 1.35 days which is considerably low. But the quantum inflow of tourists continues to increase. A friend of mine working with a leading travel agency told me in March that all the major hotels in the city were booked well in advance. Thanks to the more organised players in the tourism industry such as Make My Trip and Yatra, more people in the country are willing to travel and willing to see other parts of the country.

Going through the Shimla Development Plan, one will realise that unlike what appears in the media, efforts have been put from time to time by authorities to take care of Shimla water problems. The first water supply scheme for Shimla was started way back in 1875 to supply water for a population of 20,000. After that 6 more schemes have been launched to augment the water supply to the town. The combined design capacity of the sources is 45.96 Million Litres per Day (MLD), although the present yield is limited to 39.21 MLD (from the five sources) due to technical problems. The last such project to augment supply of water to Shimla city is the recently inaugurated Giri lift water supply scheme which is expected to bring 20 MLD of water to Shimla city. However, it is not clear as to what will be the capacity utilisation of the scheme, as quantity of water in Giri river itself reduces considerably in the summer months.

The statistics as of today show that, 27.37 MLD of treated water from main sources is supplied to Shimla and 2.63 MLD from tube wells during the lean period. The total water supplied to the city is 33 MLD. The present water requirement per day for Shimla City during peak tourist season is 39.85 MLD as against the supply of 33 MLD. Thus, there is deficit of water supply of about 7 MLD, which increases to 17 MLD during summer due to shortfall because of failure of snow or rain in previous winter. Therefore, the average shortfall in water supply is 12 MLD till last week. We have not yet accounted for the growth in both the population and the tourists in coming years.

On the supply side I&PH department spends Rs 45 Crore annually to supply water to Shimla town. The main source of funding for urban water supplies is by charging the end user of water. I&PH, which produces water at Rs. 35 per KL, supplies Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) bulk water at the rate of Rs. 8.80 per KL. SMC is charging Rs. 3.85 per KL of water for domestic purposes even though SMC incurs an additional cost of Rs. 6.50 per KL towards operation and maintenance costs. The financial statements of the SMC show an outstanding amount of Rs 18.74 Crore towards I&PH department. The state government had paid I&PH department Rs 16.46 Crore on behalf of SMC in 2003. This clearly implies that citizens of the state are subsidising. The bill collections efficiency of SMC is meagre 69%. Clearly it makes the case that the state of Himachal Pradesh and its citizens are subsidising the cost of water for residents of Shimla by 90%.

The Giri lift water supply scheme comes as a relief to the citizens of the city but it will certainly add to the increasing electricity bill for both the SMC and I&PH department. In another progressive step, the Government has taken up plans for bringing 45 million litres of water daily to Shimla from Pabbar. The Government has envisaged a gravity scheme under JNNURM to tap into water sources at 2800 m and bring the water down to Shimla (2200m) through pipelines. However the project is to be implemented by the year 2011. On successful completion the project will not only solve water requirements for Shimla for coming few years but also save huge electricity bills borne by the I&PH department on behalf of the citizens of the state.

The water supply problem has been taken care of in the short term but there are some pertinent questions which come up now. How to tackle the increasing operating costs of such projects. How to fund the increasing costs of operations and maintenance of the water supply schemes inside the city? Should the burden of maintaining the cost of water supply to the city to be passed on to the citizens of the city or not? How to improve the efficiency of bill collections at SMC? Is there way out in doing such projects in Public Private and partnerships or getting them building in a stake for communities in the city?

Well it is a thin rope to walk for the planners, the administrators and the politicians but we can sincerely hope that some public debate takes place before decision are taken which affect the common man. Till then we can rejoice with the feeling of water water everywhere !

The problem impacts us in many ways. The immediate impact is in terms of the health of people living in the dirty surroundings. There is an increasing population of street dogs which continue to roam freely, feed on the garbage dumps and on and off do not dither from taking a bite at human flesh. The worst case scenario is when we are left with nothing beautiful to show to our traveller friends in our hill stations.

Garbage dump in Khalini

In the past one year, we have seen all kinds of stakeholders taking initiatives to clean up Shimla. The honourable High Court took upon itself to ban the dumpers in Shimla. Following these orders, the Shimla municipality went ahead and partnered with the Centre for Development Communication, Ahmedabad to implement a door to door collection scheme. However, it is a different matter that the scheme has completely flopped. Now the municipal corporation is planning to blacklist the company.

The government at its level had instructed the forest department to form a committee comprising of Municipal commissioner and representatives of PWD. The committee is yet to meet. It is interesting to note that a proper site to dump garbage in Shimla is yet to be identified. The one in use is already filled up and most of the times garbage is thrown around it and not in it.

Garbage in the Nallah flowing between the Lift and Hotel Combermere

We, the responsible citizens are to be blamed too. I mean how many times the responsible citizens have thrown garbage inside the dumps and not around it. How many times have we segregated the garbage, which we dispose into perishable and non perishable items. Owners of eateries on the Mall make good money selling pastries, pakoras and sandwiches, but have done little efforts to dispose of paper plates, which tourists throw in bins placed recklessly by them in front of their shops.

Dustbins on Mall road, Shimla

Democracy is about engagement. Until and unless citizens engage in the process, it is bound to fail. While talking to my mother, I got to know that the garbage dump in our street in Dharamshala is now being cleaned regularly. What made the difference? The citizens of the area got together and said, “Well, we have had enough”. So they ensure that ward members, municipality officials come to the spot and take responsibility to get the dump cleaned. Sometimes solutions to many problems are quite simple. All we need to do is to engage.

Now we know that Municipal corporation is clueless, so is the Government. It’s time that we the citizens get-together put our brains together and suggest ways to get our habitations clean. We invite our readers to send their suggestions to help tide over this crisis. You can suggest methods of waste disposal which work effectively. Send references of experts on this subject. Tell us how citizens have organised in your neighbourhood to make it clean? Can private sector play some role here?

We promise to compile your views and send it to the concerned officials, follow it up and keep you informed. So leave your comments or Write to Us

Often we hear people saying in Himachal: “Nothing can be done here”. These words have been abused to an extent that the very idea has become firmly engraved in minds of young people in Himachal. The basic idea of Young Guns column at HimVani, here is to break this thought process. So far, the kind of youngsters the column has covered, come from a city background with families to support them. The story, which follows is, of a novel and noble idea pursued from fancy to reality by two brothers belonging to a remote village in Himachal Pradesh.

Mahunag is a small village located on the periphery of Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. The nearest town is Karsog which is roughly 35 km from the village. Like most of the villages in the state, the civil infrastructure is well in place. Mahunag has a High School with nice small playground. There was even an eco-tourism club in the school. Other amenities such as drinking water supply, 24 hours electricity, forest rest house, rural telecom exchange, bus service, health centre are well in place. The visible signs of development were attributed to two local politicians, Mansa Ram and Mast Ram. Both belong to rival political parties and did their bit for the constituency when voted to power.

In spite of the development in the physical infrastructure and connectivity, the place is fairly remote. The remoteness was not just in distance but in our minds considering that there was nothing worthwhile for city sticklers like us to do. The best way to while away time was to strike a conversation. The chowkidar of the Forest Guest House was more than willing to oblige. The discussion meandered around various subjects till we chanced upon the income sources for the village. It came as a surprise to know that he was cultivating Broccoli. Vegetables are cultivated in Himachal to a large extent but mostly they are of a desi variety. To add to it, he was also cultivating other Chinese herbs. Four years back, Balanandra and Jayanandra, two brothers from the village came from Delhi. One was working as a manager in a hotel and the other was with a retail store. They started cultivation of Broccoli in their own fields. Their neighbours too got interested and started planting the exotic vegetable. Today the village produces almost 100 tons of Broccoli alone. Each bigha of land gives approximately five tons of Broccoli.

Broccoli

Broccoli fields, post harvest

It has now become customary for the brothers to come to the village in the month of April. They bring seeds of vegetables along with them. Then, another trip in the month of June is made to the village to pool all the produce. The produce is taken by them to Delhi where the going rate for Broccoli ranges from Rs 60 to 100 per kg, depending on the season. The farmers are paid between Rs 35 and Rs 60 per kg again, depending on the season, produce and quality of the vegetables. Man Singh who owns five bighas of land earns almost Rs 20,000 per bigha for an investment of Rs 3000 – 4000 per bigha.

A local forest official was however complaining. Though happy with the change in the economy of the place, he could not find labour to work in resin tapping work. He has to rely on unskilled labour from other parts of the state and Bihar who were making a mess of resin tapping operations. However, the local farmer is happy, as he gets a reasonable return for his produce. It also reduces his dependence on apple crop, which over the years has become increasingly unpredictable due to vagaries of nature.

During our short stay in the village, we could not meet the two brothers, but Man Singh was happy and attributed it all to them. Hopefully, we will see more Balanandra and Jayanandras who will take upon themselves to change the socio- economic conditions in their villages for better. Proving us all wrong who keep on harping ‘Nothing can be done here”

Some photographs of Mahunag village

Mahunag Temple

Mahunag High School

BSNL Rural exchange

Forest Rest House

Devdar Eco Club Mahunag

HRTC Bus Service .