Navi Mumbai goes without water for 48 hrs

The civic body had declared 24-hour water cut on April 6 for April 10, as it planned to shift the Morbe main pipeline at Chikhale for Panvel-Karjat railway line and crossing the water supply mainline at Diva-Panvel railway line below the expressway bridge at Kalamboli. Additionally, the engineering department decided to do its maintenance work of Bhokarpada water treatment plant and Morbe dam to Digha main pipeline.

NAVI MUMBAI/THANE: The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) faced flak from citizens as it failed to provide adequate supply to the city for 48 hours. Panic-stricken residents reached out to the administration to seek answers for the out-of-turn prolonged cut, and arrived at pumping stations to fill up a few buckets.

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“This is supposed to be a planned city, but we had to beg for water for two days. Even Thane fares better than us,” said 54-year-old Sudhir Dhani, a Belapur resident.

The civic body had declared 24-hour water cut on April 6 for April 10, as it planned to shift the Morbe main pipeline at Chikhale for Panvel-Karjat railway line and crossing the water supply mainline at Diva-Panvel railway line below the expressway bridge at Kalamboli. Additionally, the engineering department decided to do its maintenance work of Bhokarpada water treatment plant and Morbe dam to Digha main pipeline.

The supply was supposed to resume after 10pm on Tuesday.

Throwing light on the civic body’s shoddy planning, Nerul-based activist Anarajit Chauhan said, “The Panvel-Karjat rail corridor is not a new project. NMMC could have done the work in winter when the per capita consumption of water is far less than summer. Undertaking such a massive work in the summer beats logic.” Chauhan has decided to file an RTI to unearth the mismanagement.

“The water supply should have been restored at least by Tuesday 11 am on Tuesday. But, even on Wednesday the situation was the same. Not a single drop of water was released. In this scorching heat, NMMC has only shown its sheer inability to provide basic facilities to its citizens. Tankers were also not available, and we could arrange for one on Tuesday, which was barely sufficient to cater for 446 flats. We started looking for alternatives again on Wednesday morning,” said Koparkhairane resident B N Kumar.

The worst affected areas were Koparkhairane, Belapur and Ghansoli, with those residing in CIDCO-constructed buildings taking a severe blow.

“Forget about underground water storage in LIG buildings in sector 10, 8 and 2 of Nerul, don’t even have overhead tanks; instead each household has over 500-litre tanks which are filled daily. So imagine their plight when there was no water available for three days,” said social activist Ravindra Patil, adding that residents were seen collecting water from the pipelines supplying water from sewage treatment plants used to water the garden belts.

In other areas, residents complained about receiving murky and non-potable water. Koparkhairne resident Veera Mudaliyar posted videos on Twitter showing the dirty water being supplied in the neighbourhood.

Senior officials with the water department said the situation would be resolved at the earliest. “Since there was a total shutdown the pipelines were empty leading to delay. But the situation has been addressed and some areas are getting water, although in low pressure,” said an official.

Meanwhile although Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has not imposed any water cuts on its own, but the 15% cut imposed by the BMC in some areas is leading to water shortage in some areas, claimed Thane commissioner Abhijit Bangar.

“Unfortunately, we do not have any tanker supply system in place,” said Bangar.

The affected areas are: Naupada, Louiswadi, Kisannagar and Kopri, where residents have complained of low water pressure whenever there is a supply. “The water cut has affected us badly. Sometimes we gat supply for just 15 minutes in low pressure. We don’t have a Plan-B. Buying water is expensive. Sometimes we limit the number of showers and household chores,” said Rupesh Gaikwad, 38, a resident of Kisannagar.

TMC receives 85 MLD of water from BMC for these areas. The water cut was planned from March 31 for 30 days. TMC supplies around 585 MLD of water across the corporation limits.

Representing residents of Godhbunder Road, BJP MLA Sanjay Kelkar, has warned that if the situation does not improve, he will take out a protest march. “At least 30 housing societies have approached me complaining of water shortage. The municipal corporation should stop giving permission to new buildings, if the water planning is not done in the next 10 days. Residents will march to the TMC,” Kelkar said.