BMC blames citizens, old pipelines for impure water

The BMC has blamed citizens for the fresh cases of water contamination as they might emerge from private service connections, which are often not replaced. To solve this problem, the civic body has come up with a solution.

The BMC has blamed citizens for the fresh cases of water contamination as they might emerge from private service connections, which are often not replaced. To solve this problem, the civic body has come up with a solution.

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Additional municipal commissioner Rajiv Jalota said the BMC is studying a proposal to allow citizens to replace service connection pipelines, made of galvanised iron, with plastic-like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipes. PVC pipes are often used in societies for internal connections.

A few years ago, the civic body had conducted a pilot project to replace some service connections. However, the exercise proved to be too tedious and costly and was dropped.

The high occurrence of contamination is also due to old, creaky and leakage-prone pipelines, said civic officials. “We have been trying to find a solution. But in places like south Mumbai where the number of old pipelines if huge, curing the problem will take a long time,” said a civic official.