Water tanker association calls off indefinite strike on Day 5

Owing to no water supply since April 10, housing societies, slums and commercial sectors, which depend on private tankers for their daily needs, were grappling with a water crisis

MUMBAI: On Monday afternoon, a meeting between the BMC and the Mumbai Water Tankers Association (MWTA) resolved the deadlock between the two, following which MWTA called off its indefinite suspension of services on Day 5. Owing to no water supply since April 10, housing societies, slums and commercial sectors, which depend on private tankers for their daily needs, were grappling with a water crisis.

The Mumbai Water Tankers Association (MWTA) called the strike in response to the notices issued by the BMC to all well owners to suspend their operations (Hindustan Times)

The MWTA took the decision a day after the BMC invoked the Disaster Management Act (2005), under which the civic body would take control of all the wells and tankers to continue the water supply in the city. “The BMC has agreed to suspend all the notices, take back the penalties imposed on us, and has told us that the state government will convey our demand to the union ministry to amend the 2020 guidelines of the Central Ground Water Authority (CGWA),” said Ankur Sharma, spokesperson of MWTA.

A statement from the BMC read, “The notices of suspension to well owners are withdrawn; however well owners who do not have adequate approvals from the corporation will have to obtain these. Further, any technical matters are the domain of the state government, and the civic body cannot interfere.”

The civic body withdrew the suspension letters after the intervention of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and union minister of Jal Shakti C R Patil. The strike was in response to the notices issued by the BMC to all well owners to suspend their operations—the reasons given were that the wells were a breeding ground for mosquitoes and/or the owners did not have the requisite license from the CGWA.

As per the CGWA guidelines, to get a license for commercial purposes, well owners are required to have an area of 200 sq m or more around them where the water tankers can be filled without having to park on the road or create unhygienic conditions. They are also required to set up digital water flow meters to keep a track of the amount of water abstracted so that the tankers can accordingly pay for it, and submit groundwater reports to the CGWA to assess the quality of water and avoid overexploitation for commercial purposes.

“We were willing to get the license from CGWA but the clause that mandates 200 sq m of area around the wells was not feasible, as there is not enough space in the city,” said Sharma. “The guidelines were not developed considering the urban landscape, which is why we required our problems to be conveyed to the authorities.”

The city depends on a regular supply of 200 million litres per day (MLD) from tankers. As per the MWTA, tanker water is supplied to slum areas, residential buildings, malls, construction sites, infrastructure projects and to the railways for the cleaning of coaches.

Activist Sureshkumar Dhoka said, “The wells in the city have been overexploited, which could lead to the ingress of saline water—which, in turn, will have an adverse environmental impact. Hence, it is important to regulate the wells and the water tanker business in the city.”