Pipelines damaged at 20 spots, Gurugram residents blame water mafia

According to GMDA, 20 spots were targeted by miscreants leading to a water shortage in Manesar, Dwarka Expressway, Golf Course Extension and other parts of the city. In several areas, the shortage is acute as supply has been disturbed for over 10 days

The Haryana Space Applications Centre (Harsac) has prepared data on 20 sites at 39 locations where pipelines were damaged leading to a supply shortage in several residential areas of Gurugram over the past one month, said officials of the Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) on Thursday.

Officials said their teams are patrolling these areas and surveillance has also been stepped up to check water theft from pipeline leaks. (Parveen Kumar/ HT)

Officials said they have installed multiple censor cameras at these locations and the feed from these cameras will be monitored by the GMDA’s integrated command and control centre (ICCC) in Sector 44 in an extensive geographic information system (GIS)-based surveillance operation.

According to GMDA, 20 spots were targeted by miscreants leading to a water shortage in Manesar, Dwarka Expressway, Golf Course Extension and other parts of the city. In several areas, the shortage is acute as supply has been disturbed for over 10 days.

Officials believe that it is the water mafia that is tampering with the pipeline as they want to cripple supply so that residents pay exorbitant sums for water tankers and packaged water.

Officials said their teams are patrolling these areas and surveillance has also been stepped up to check water theft from pipeline leaks. Their team at I-CCC detected the damage to pipelines following which teams were sent to the spots.

Officials also admitted that there was a demand and supply gap in certain in newer sectors as more families have shifted to those parts over the past few months.

Abhinav Verma, executive engineer, GMDA, said several incidents of damaging or tampering with the supply network have been reported in the past as well. “Sometimes, the valve is deliberately closed which affects supply to all connections on that line. Such issues have been seen at Golf Course Extension Road, Sector 72 and New Gurugram areas. Recently, the scour valve on the supply network along Dwarka Expressway was tampered with and it had to be rectified by our team. Now, regular monitoring is taking place,” he said.

Verma said remedial measures such as setting up enclosures or cages to protect the infra have been carried out in the past. “Patrolling has also been increased in areas from where such instances have reported,” he said.

Sources in the GMDA said it was the water mafia that is creating the crisis by damaging infrastructure and then charging residents exorbitant sums to deliver tankers and packaged water.

At least 20 residential societies in new developing sectors, Golf Course Extension Road and Dwarka Expressway are facing a water shortage.

The residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) said if the mafia can arrange water and supply to residents, why can’t the administration or the civic body do so. “Water issues in plotted areas are endless and there is no vigilance mechanism to stop the tanker mafia, which is extorting money from us,” said Ritu Bhariok, vice-president, Federation of Apartment Owners Association of Gurugram.

Dhruv Bansal, administrator and spokesperson, DLF residents’ body, said supply has remained erratic in the area, leaving residents with no option but to depend on tankers. “Hundreds of residents are suffering this harassment by the water mafia. They charge exorbitant rates between ₹2,000-5,000 per tanker. Basically, we are paying for the same water for which we are paying the authorities. We have planned a massive demonstration against the authorities if the situation is not normalised within the week,” he said.

Several societies have written to GMDA on Wednesday to lodge a police complaint on pipeline tampering. In its letter, the RWAs stated that such acts(of damaging water pipeline repeatedly were meant to harass residents and force them to hire private tankers.

Praveen Malik, president, RWA, SARe Homes Society in Sector 92, said the tanker mafia gets active in peak summer and damages distribution lines so that residents have to depend on tankers.

“Also, the Chandu Budhera water plant was shut for a day for maintenance of electricity infrastructure. Because of that, the distribution lines went empty and now the GMDA is claiming that from their end, the issue has been resolved. But in reality, the lines were completely empty and the demand of water has increased. Hence the line is not able to hold the required water as per the demand. Now it’s a game of demand and supply . As against a current demand of 800,000 litres per day, the GMDA is supplying only 150,000 litres daily,” he said.

Officials said their teams are patrolling the areas where tampering has taken place. They also admitted that the demand has increased from the areas facing a supply shortage because more families have shifted there in the past few months.

PC Meena, MCG commissioner and CEO of GMDA, said they have already set up an extensive GIS-based surveillance network which consists of a network of CCTV cameras and sensors that transmit real-time visual feeds and data to a dashboard dedicated to water supply at the command centre.

“The surveillance system is based on GIS technology, and uses a citywide network of fibre optic cables, which is running parallel to its water pipelines and cameras,” he said.

Dr Sultan Singh, head of GIS at GMDA, and a senior scientist at Harsac, said they have installed multiple censors at 39 locations and they are connected to the dashboard at the command centre. “The One Map platform is helping all divisions detect theft and teams are regularly monitoring those areas. We immediately send the feed related to water theft to the teams concerned to ensure that prompt action is taken,” he said.