Water Supply System

The Government of Assam has envisaged improvements in the water supply sector to provide access to potable water to 100% of the residents of the Guwahati Metropolitan Area (GMA). The City Development Plan (CDP) for Guwahati, prepared under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), envisions providing safe and sustainable water to its citizens at an appropriate pricing with the ultimate goal of providing 24 hours water across the city. To achieve this objective, the city has been divided into four distribution zones: (i) North Guwahati Zone (ii) South Guwahati West Zone (iii) South Guwahati Central Zone and (iv) South Guwahati East Zone.
Currently, only 40% of the population has access to central piped water supply system. Lack of adequate water supply is causing inconvenience and hardship in Guwahati. The key issues pertaining to the present systems can be summarized as follows: (i) limited coverage of the system, and dependence on non-potable water sources; (ii) non-uniform distribution, both in terms of quality and quantity of water supplied; (iii) high levels of non revenue water (NRW), and leakages in the distribution system; and (iv) low levels of cost recovery.
The present production capacity of 110.85 MLD, actual production of water is 73.4 MLD (66%). Out of around 74 MLD of potable water produced, 72 MLD is drawn from the river Brahmaputra and rest of about 1.5 MLD is pumped from deep tube wells installed at various locations by Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC).
The present production from all sources (73.4 MLD) is inadequate with respect to present demand of around 150 MLD. Most of the treatment plants are also old and damaged due to which they are running much below their actual capacities. Various components are not functioning and as a result both quantity and quality are not being assured. Intake systems are old and rusted needing immediate repair and replacement. The proposed Project will add 88 MLD.
The NRW in the Guwahati production and distribution system is estimated to be over 40%, resulting in a per capita availability of only about 65 litres per day with an average supply hours of 2 to 3 hours within those areas where piped water supply is available. The high NRW is because of uncontrolled leakage from the distribution system and transmission line and free flow of water from the street hydrant points. Table 1 shows the salient features of the present water supply system.
Table 1: Salient Features of the Guwahati Water Supply System