Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation seeks water from Kushiwali dam in Ambernath
Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation chief has written to the principal secretary of water resource department, Mantralay, Mumbai, asking to be allowed to take water from the upcoming Kushiwali dam in Ambernath taluka, considering the requirement for the population of KDMC limits
The Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation (KDMC) has initiated the planning for the water requirements for the future.
The KDMC chief, Vijay Suryavanshi, has written to the principal secretary of water resource department, Mantralay, Mumbai, asking to be allowed to take water from the upcoming Kushiwali dam in Ambernath taluka, considering the requirement for the population of KDMC limits.
As per the civic body, if it is allowed a quota for taking water from the dam, it will be able to solve the major water woes in 27 villages that were included in the KDMC in June 2015.
Presently, the KDMC has a quota of 320MLD of water from Ulhas River and 40MLD from Kalu River. In total, 360MLD of water is taken from these rivers and supplied to the KDMC limits.
Meanwhile, 55MLD of water is also provided by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) to the 27 villages. In total, 415MLD of water is available for the KDMC limits for an estimated population of around 21 lakh. The civic body says that this is not sufficient for its population.
“Considering the estimated increase in the population and also the villages being a part of the civic body, there is a need to increase the water sources for KDMC in the coming years. If the government allows us water from the upcoming Kushiwali dam, it will be very helpful to deal with the water requirements in the future,” said Pramod More, executive engineer, water department, KDMC.
The civic body has also urged to divert the quota of 140MLD water by MIDC for NMMC from Ulhas river to KDMC. A decision was taken in a meeting of water resource minister and senior officials in 2009 to divert this quota to KDMC. However, it was not done.
“This diversion is not yet implemented for which we have asked the department to help implement it in the coming days,” added More.
In the letter, the civic chief has also asked for funds to take up the work at dams like Pesheer and Kondane in Raigad district and have an independent water source in the future from these resources.