Frequent water cuts, irregular supply irk residents of Navi Mumbai

The civic body has resorted to weekly half-day cuts for some time now. There are also regular unofficial water cuts and inadequate water supply issues, residents of several areas have been complaining

Navi Mumbai: Repeated water shutdowns, weekly half-day supply cuts and irregular supply along with low pressure have upset the residents of Navi Mumbai, who are accustomed to regular and abundant water supply over the years.

When contacted, NMMC city engineer Sanjay Desai, said, “NMMC is undertaking the necessary pre-monsoon work. It is essential that the repair has to be carried out at the Bhokarpada filtration plant and of Morbe dam to Digha main water pipeline apart from related issues.” (Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)

The civic body has resorted to weekly half-day cuts for some time now. There are also regular unofficial water cuts and inadequate water supply issues, residents of several areas have been complaining.

To add to the misery, the civic body seems to complete shutdown of water supply every month now. It declared a third shutdown for June on Wednesday. The civic body stated that there will be no water supply for 12 hours from 10am to 10pm on the day. It announced that there will be no water supply to the city on Wednesday evening while the supply on Thursday morning will be low pressure.

Residents, however, complained that the water supply on Thursday morning was negligible. The announcement led to the residents scrambling to store water from the available supply.

“Based on experiences in the past few months of NMMC’s claims of water supply resumption falling flat, this time we stored extra water. It helped as there was little water supply on Thursday. It, however, is not easy. How much can we store,” Kailash Shinde, 32, a resident of Vashi, said

The earliest two shutdowns were of 12 hours and 24 hours officially, but the water supply took much more time to be restored, he said, adding, “We had to beg those who had stored some water to help us.”

Somenath Ghose, a managing committee member of a housing society in Kopar Khairane, stopped the water supply in their society at night. Since the water supply on Thursday morning was also inadequate and we had limited stock, we stopped the supply again from 12 noon to 4pm,” he added. “One cannot be sure about when the normal supply will resume. There is also a huge shortage of water tankers, probably due to high demand.”

The problem is not just during the shutdown, said Radha Anant, 52, a resident of Kopar Khairane. “There is a perennial water supply problem in sector 11 which has several high-rises and large housing societies. Despite repeated complaints, we get inadequate water supply on almost a daily basis. Some people are actually planning to shift from here.”

She added, “Several societies are dependent on tanker water for their daily needs. Sometimes one feels that the authorities have forgotten our area or that the shortage is being artificially created.”

Radha said that members of their society are paying ₹2,000 per flat to ensure regular water tanker supply. “With power issues also in the area recently, it seems as if we are under surgical strike,” she added.

Meanwhile, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) claimed that the water cut is due to the measures being taken to ensure there are no issues in the monsoon.

When contacted, NMMC city engineer Sanjay Desai, said, “NMMC is undertaking the necessary pre-monsoon work. It is essential that the repair has to be carried out at the Bhokarpada filtration plant and of Morbe dam to Digha main water pipeline apart from related issues.”

He added, “The shutdowns have to be taken to ensure the residents do not face any problems in the future. We always do our best to restore normal supply at the earliest.”

Desai added that there are technical issues sometimes and hence water supply is restored in a phased manner.