In the wake of the water gush incident in Guwahati's Kharghuli on May 25 which claimed the life of one woman and uprooted several families in the locality, the Citizens' United Forum has released a statement condoling the families of the victims of the tragedy, while condemning the incident.
According to the organization, the incident was entirely avoidable and took place due to negligence on the part of the authorities.
A statement from them on the incident read, "On May 25, 2023, a devastating accident of water pipe burst in the Kharghuli area in the Guwahati caused the unfortunate death of a woman, injured several persons, and damaged several houses, two-wheelers and four-wheelers. This was an unprecedented and completely unexpected accident that took place in a water-carrying pipe of the JICA-funded South Central Guwahati Water Supply Project in the Joypur area of Kharghuli. In fact, the gushing out of water at high speed started at 2.30 pm on Thursday and it continued for about forty minutes. A big question here is as to why it took forty minutes to stop the water from coming out at a high speed. In fact, if necessary equipment such as pressure-measuring machines were present at the Water Treatment Plant (WTP) and a qualified person had been available to supervise them on time, the incidence of such explosions could have been stopped within a minute. Then the area could have been saved from this huge loss of life and property."
The statement further said, "The Citizens’ United Forum conveys its condolences to the families of the deceased and demands adequate compensation for the deceased and the injured."
"The pipeline where the blast took place was laid by Gammon, a previously engaged company and the pipeline had been working for the past three years. The bursting of such pipes all of a sudden is normally not seen. In our opinion, the part of the pipe where the explosion took place was probably leaking through a small crack for a few days. But due to lack of regular supervision and maintenance of the pipes or lack of proper monitoring at the Treatment Plant, such minor faults are not detected in time, and as a result, such huge accidents do occur," it added.
They also said, "As we know, the parts completed so far of the South Central Guwahati Water Supply Project have not actually been handed over to the Jal Board; these are still in the hands of NJS, a Japanese company employed as Project Management Consultant (PMC). While we are not going into the rationale of such a system for the time being, one point is very clear that there is no proper monitoring of the operations of the company by the Jal Board."
Furthermore, "The Project Implementation Unit (PIU) which is currently with the Jal Board is actually tasked to look after all the implementation aspects of the project. Sadly there is a lack of suitable, experienced and adequate technical personnel in this group," the statement mentioned.
They also said, "Looking at the functioning of the Jal Board, their priority seems to lie in providing water in as many areas of Central Guwahati without adhering to the basic guidelines. But the most important point in this case is to ensure the safety of the people and this aspect has been completely neglected so far. We demand that the repair of pipes and installation of necessary protective equipment in the Water Treatment Plant, reservoirs etc. be completed immediately."
"It is essential to have reservoirs at appropriate locations to ensure smooth supply of water. But many reservoirs under the JalBoard are still incomplete. Running a water supply scheme by pumping water at high pressure is actually a very dangerous measure. In the absence of reservoirs, the Jal Board has installed pressure relief valves at various places to control the speed of the water. Such valves need to be looked after very carefully. Otherwise these are very dangerous tools and they have the potential to explode. To avoid this, early completion of the reservoirs should be a topmost priority; Otherwise there are possibilities of an even bigger accidents," it also mentioned.
The statement added, "It is worth mentioning that after this accident, a three-member Technical Committee has been set up by the government and this Forum has presented its views on the accident to the Committee. On the other hand, a petition has been made by the Forum to the State Human Rights Commission to the effect that the responsibility of investigating the accident should be given to another competent agency other than the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (Metro) district. This is because the DC, Kamrup Metro himself is the head of the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) as well as the Guwahati Jal Board. Hence, there should be an impartial inquiry and he also should also be brought under the scanner."
