Water in my home smells like sewage. When will BMC act?

Mumbai’s municipal tap water is unfit for human consumption any time of the year, more so during monsoon, but we see the contamination only when it smells like sewage water and takes a detestable colour.

Mumbai’s municipal tap water is unfit for human consumption any time of the year, more so during monsoon, but we see the contamination only when it smells like sewage water and takes a detestable colour.

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For nearly a month, during September, my housing society in Borivli (West) was getting water that smelled like sewage until the matter was taken up with the ward officer.

I don’t think the inefficient BMC can ever solve the problem because it is ill-equipped to deal with rampant pilferage and as long as the water pipelines pass through slums and nullahs, very little will be done.
— KP Rajan

Use cameras to prevent water theft
The desilting of water from our lakes should be taken up seriously to avoid contamination. Desilting of lakes has not been done for the past couple of years.

When the city had a scanty monsoon in 2009, the BMC wanted to desilt the lakes, but the plan never took off. This year also, the BMC promised to desilt the lakes before the monsoon began.

People indulging in such malpractices should be made to face criminal proceedings and fast track courts should be set up. Equipment should be procured to test water quality at the lakes itself, before the water is released into pipes for supply to the city, and immediate remedial steps should be taken. A separate BMC website should be set up to address the grievances of citizens who are forced to use contaminated water.

The citizens living in housing societies should get their water tanks cleaned at least once a year.
— Deendayal M Lulla

We need to clean our water tanks
Slum dwellers tamper with the pipelines that supply water for their own use which results in water contamination.
BMC should ensure that such leakages are promptly fixed and such recurrences do not occur again.

It is also the duty of residents to see that water storage tanks in buildings are duly cleaned at least twice in a year, especially during the monsoon season. But, such steps are rarely taken by societies.
— Ketan R Meher

Penalise those responsible
Our civic bodies have failed to clean the area surrounding the water pipeline. The gutter water mixes with the pipeline water and increases the number of diseases.

The BMC must take immediate action and make sure that they supply clean drinking water. It should also ensure that whoever is responsible for the lapses is penalised. I hope that the BMC realises the grave situation and takes required steps.
— Bhagwan Thadani