BHOPAL: Upper Lake has reserves to supply water for only next ten days. Over 800,000 people or 30 per cent population of Bhopal falling under areas of old Bhopal and Bairagarh area will now solely rely on Narmada water. However, this water too will fall short and it will trouble the residents in the areas where water is currently being supplied from Narmada. The water in upper lake has gone down its lowest level. On Thursday, the water level dipped to 1651.80 feet while the death level in upper lake is 1652 feet.
The civic body officials said water will be supplied from Upper Lake only for the next ten days. The areas of old Bhopal where water supply through upper lake is done are Budhwara, Itwara, Unani Shafakhana, Ibrahimpura, Talaiya, Idgah Hills, Shahjahnabad, Bairagrh, Teela, Nariyalkheda, Jp Nagar, Quazi Camp, Indra Nagar, Royal Market, Kohefiza and others. The civic body has already stopped supplying water on regular basis and alternate water supply is done in these areas but after ten days, this supply will also suffer.
The Narmada water supply is an alternate to Upper Lake but that is also running under burden, as on daily basis 40 MGD water is supplied from Narmada river, extra 4 MGD of its original volume, and some volume of water is supplied in the areas of Upper Lake. Old Bhopal requires 30 MGD of water but due to falling water level in Upper Lake the supply has been reduced to 20 MGD. This 20 MGD water will be then arranged from Narmada River. However, Narmada supply is already 40 MGD and it will not be able to diver 20 MGD water for areas of upper lake. AR Pawar, city engineer of water works says that the water from Narmada is there for the areas of Upper Lake, though there is water shortage. He, however, failed to explain how the volume of water that will be supplied from Narmada after water supply from Upper Lake is shut.
