Chandigarh, Sep 14 - People having illegal water connections in Punjab's rural areas could soon find their supply drying up.

The Punjab water supply and sanitation department Monday warned people to immediately remove illegal water connections or be prepared to face legal action, as well as disconnection of supply.

The deadline to get the water supply connections legalised has been set for Oct 31 this year.

Department officials said here that due to illegal water connections in the rural areas, installed by the people themselves, purity of the potable water being supplied by the department was getting affected.

A spokesman of the department said that the illegal water connections were also leading to loss of potable water due to the problem of leakage. He said that this was also resulting in impurities getting into the water and low pressure of the supply.

Violators of the order will face legal action and disconnection of water supply, the spokesman added.