Mumbai’s water supply not 100%

Even though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has waived the water cuts, Mumbai will not get 100 per cent water supply just yet.

Even though the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has waived the water cuts, Mumbai will not get 100 per cent water supply just yet.

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The civic body is still supplying 50 MLD (million litres of water daily) less to the city as the water pipelines that bring water to the city have corroded and will rupture if the pressure in them increases. The city should be getting 3,400 MLD after the cuts were lifted last month, but it has been getting 3,350 MLD.

The Tansa water main east and west are more than 100 years old and work is in progress to replace the lines.

“The administration had said they had lifted the water cuts completely, but we are drawing 50 MLD less,” BJP corporator Ashish Shelar said.

“The water mains from Verawali to Gundavali are being replaced and will take 15 days to completely replace them and only then will we be able to get the balance 50 MLD,” said deputy hydraulic engineer, Prakash Kadam.

Currently, the total water stocks in all six lakes that supply water to the city, is 12.90 lakh million litres of water.

Meanwhile, the corporators of the standing committee also said that due to the BMC’s negligent attitude over 30 per cent of the posts in the hydraulic department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation are vacant.

According to the data available with the BMC, of the 1,030 scheduled posts in the water department 300 posts are vacant.

“All these posts should be filled up immediately for the efficient functioning of the department,” standing committee chairman, Rahul Shewale, said.

Last month, over a year after it first imposed a water cut on the city, the BMC decided to restore supply to normal and roll back the cut completely so that revellers during the festive season were not bogged down with water woes.

From August 30 onwards, the city was supposed to start getting its regular supply of 3,400 MLD of water.

The cut, an official said, would be withdrawn for a month and after that, the situation would be reviewed to check if the curtail needed to be put back again.