Issues and Challenges of Small-Town Water Supply and Distribution: A Case Study of Leh Town in UT Ladakh

Abstract

Leh-Ladakh is one of the most sought-after tourist destinations in the country. The annual tourist arrivals have ever increased in Leh town without appropriate and necessary urban infrastructure evolving such as water supply and sewage system. This paper aims to highlight certain water issues such as availability, accessibility, and vulnerabilities in Leh town. The town depends on two sources for all its freshwater requirements, glacial melt water and groundwater. Glacier-melt water comes in the form of springs and surface runoff such as streams. Both Public and Private borewells are dug across the town so that the extraction of groundwater becomes easier and over the years it has become economically more viable for the locals. Leh Town has three spring sources and several major tube wells operated by the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHE), which oversees providing drinking water to the town. These sources and their Service Reservoirs (SR), where water is stored before releasing it into the distribution pipes, presently have the capacity of supplying 6.07 MLD in Leh Town, assuming all service reservoirs are functioning at maximum capacity (PHE, 2018). This maximum capacity of water supply is, however, less than the total water demand which stands at 7.5 MLD according to calculations done using population projection data of Leh Town of the year 2018. Further, this demand fluctuates when you consider the large amount of floating population which consists of tourists, service sector employees, migrant labourers, local migrants from other parts of Ladakh, and the defense forces. With regards to the quality of water, groundwater is getting more polluted due to anthropogenic reasons, mainly due to seepage from soak pits. This issue is especially highlighted in the wards of the town where clusters of hotels and guesthouses are close together and hence causes greater pollution of the groundwater. According to the PHE department, a private piped connection of water is presently being given at a flat rate of INR 2400 per annum for both commercial and household use. However, a very small percentage of these customers pay their tariffs (as per PHE) making the PHE supply water almost free of cost. This practice has led to the department having a poor CAPEX. Thus, an appropriate water pricing mechanism needs to be introduced to control water consumption and pollution.