Kalyan Dombivli civic body to tackle water woes in its 27 villages

To address the water woes in 27 villages in Kalyan and Dombivli, KDMC has planned to install GPS in water tankers, set up water tanks, tanker-filling points and increase the frequency of tankers; a review meeting was held by the civic commissioner with the water supply department and the ward officers on Thursday

To address the water woes in 27 villages in Kalyan and Dombivli, the Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has planned to install GPS in water tankers, set up water tanks, tanker-filling points and increase the frequency of tankers.

To address the water woes in 27 villages in Kalyan and Dombivli, KDMC has planned to install GPS in water tankers, set up water tanks, tanker-filling points and increase the frequency of tankers. (HT FILE PHOTO)

A review meeting was held by the civic commissioner with the water supply department and the ward officers on Thursday.

Since the 27 villages were merged with KDMC in June 2015, the villagers have been protesting against the lack of water supply. Despite several promises by the civic body, there is water shortage in these villages even this year.

“In order to ensure that the water woes in these villages are controlled in the coming months, I have asked all the concerned officials to work on it with priority. We will increase the water tankers to these villages as well as their frequency,” said Vijay Suryavanshi, KDMC commissioner.

Some of the villages that suffer from water shortage very often are Bhopar, Deslepada, Nandivli Hills, Nandivli, Madhlapada, Daudi, Golavli, Pisavli, Manere, Asheele and Dwarli. As of now, a total of 14 water tankers are supplied to these villages in six rounds. However even after the supply, villagers have raised complaints about less water daily.

Some of the plans to improve water supply in the villages by KDMC includes setting up of water supply network at Bhopar and Deslepada, pipeline for Regency Anantam and use of wells at Manere village for water supply.

“The work tender has already been called for,” said an officer of the water department of KDMC.

Also, the civic body has plans to set up a tanker-filling point at Dombivli MIDC with the cooperation of the MIDC officials. In slum areas in Titwala and Dombivli, the civic body plans to set up water tanks with a quantity of 5,000 litres so that it can cover the slum areas.

The civic chief also asked the officials to install a GPS system for water tankers in order to ensure that the water supply management in the city is tracked and done with efficiency.

“There is a need to track the activities for the water tankers to know if water is supplied to all regions on time and properly, for which a GPS system will be installed,” said Suryavanshi.

“Even today, in several parts of KDMC, water supply is a major problem. There are villages that do not receive water for two to three days, and whenever it is supplied, it is given in low pressure. The residents suffer a lot due to this. In my village, there is no water available for three days sometimes, that too during the summer. We depend on the tanker or buy mineral water from shops for drinking and cooking,” said Raghunath Patil, a 59-year-old resident of Pisavli village, Kalyan.