Pune civic body incurs ₹80 crore annual expenditure on water tankers
As many as 4.34 lakh water tanker trips have been recorded on the muster of the tanker supply cell of the water department
Despite the presence of four dams in and around Pune city having a storage capacity of 30 TMC, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has incurred an expenditure of ₹80 crore during the year on providing utility water tankers to various areas of the city facing water shortage.
As many as 4.34 lakh water tanker trips have been recorded on the muster of the tanker supply cell of the water department. The PMC pays ₹2,000 per tanker to the operators onboarded by the civic body for supplying utility water to different areas of the city.
Since 2017, 34 new villages have been merged with the civic body. These villages were earlier governed by the Pune Metropolitan and Regional Development Authority (PMRDA), and it was expected that the PMRDA would supply water to the villages. At the time of construction of several high-rise buildings in these villages, the PMRDA fixed water responsibilities on the builders who later backed out, putting a serious question mark over PMRDA governance. Currently, since the villages have been merged with the civic body, it is imperative for the PMC to provide water supply to these areas. The requirement of water tankers has gone up significantly during the summer season and through different phases of the past one year.
The PMC water supply department had been releasing only 11.50 TMC of water since 2005 which was increased to 12.42 TMC. During the past two decades, the city population has gone up with rapid urbanisation of the area. However, the water quota has remained stagnant and is not commensurate with the current requirement of the city. The PMC will have to release 20 TMC water if it wants to supply adequate water to the 34 new villages merged with the civic body. Also, citizens have complained that water tanker owners are charging increased rates even though they are required to supply the water at fixed rates.
NIBM Annexe Citizens Watch Committee founder, Daljeet Goraya, said, “The residents are paying taxes on time and are still being forced to pay excessive and exorbitant water tanker bills. The rapid growth of the city has to be stopped as development has to be controlled because the current population does not have adequate water resources to support their daily requirements. The PMC is paying crores of rupees to the water tanker operators who in turn are also found supplying tankers for construction work which needs to be investigated and stopped with immediate effect.”
