HT Correspondent (Dehradun, December 29)

THE DOON valley which has become a source of major developmental activities in the past years had to pay a big price for this.

According to latest estimates the water level in the region has been constantly going down over the years. As such in many areas the tube-wells have stopped functioning completely creating a scarcity of water in Dehradun.

The water supply to Dehradun and nearby areas comes through under-ground water resources and through tube-wells. There are 40 tube-wells in the urban areas and 20 tube-wells in the rural areas of the Doon valley. Unfortunately no one has tried to calculate the needs of the areas in the coming years and no planning has been done to enhance the supply of water in years to come.

As of now Dehradun itself needs 63 mld of water every day but the actual supply available from all sources is only 66 mld which means a shortage of 17 mld.In summers this position is likely to worsen further if urgent steps are not taken in advance, sources said.The shortage of water is so severe that four of the tube-wells in Dehradun have not yielded a drop of water for sometime now.