Resilience is being tested in Bagalchak, located in the Thaldhar block of Tehri district, where drinking water shortages have persisted for 2 years. Officials say the 20-km long water supply line, constructed in 1989, has deteriorated severely. A repair drive carried out by the Jal Sansthan with funds from the Jal Jeevan Mission touched only about 3 kilometers of pipe and built a tank, with an expenditure of approximately 40-42 lakh rupees, but the rest of the network remains unrepaired. Consequently, even when water is available at the source, nearby taps fail to deliver sufficient supply. Around 70 families are now compelled to draw water from a personal line about half a kilometer away as a workaround.
Gopalpur village residents and local representatives say the plan has not been taken over by the village panchayat due to the incomplete state of the network. The district-level engineers note the need for a reorganization of the scheme and the construction of an additional tank to address leakage and supply gaps. The executive engineer of the Jal Sansthan in New Tehri confirmed that after repairing the line, if the village still experiences no water flow, an inspection of the scheme would be undertaken and a resolution pursued. There is also an assurance that the leakage in the existing tank will be repaired soon.
