BMC springs into action to solve city’s water woes

As part of a series of short term goals, the civic body has now promised to fix leaking water pipes in the city.

“Considering that leaking pipes are one of the main causes of water wastage, our first priority is to fix such pipelines in the city,” said chief hydraulic engineer, M M Kamble.

Two weeks ago, a water pipeline was punctured at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar road in Matunga due to construction work in the area. In the process, an estimated damage of Rs 1.5 to 2 lakh was caused.

To top this, some 50,000 to 60,000 million litres a day (MLD) of water was being wasted. As a result, Matunga, Dadar, Parel and Lalbaug were hit by an acute water shortage for most of the last fortnight.

As part of the long term goals, the civic body has reiterated that it will rehabilitate and replace pipelines throughout the city wherever necessary.

“We are planning to relay water pipelines and resize the existing ones. But this will take time and at present we don’t know when the work will be completed,” said Kamble.

The civic body has recognised the administrative wards of L, R and K (Kurla, Dahisar and Andheri areas) as the worst affected areas as far as water shortage is concerned.

The civic body claims that this is also due to fewer pumping stations in these areas. “We will construct more pumping stations in these areas and increase the pressure points of the existing ones,” said Kamble.

Keeping in mind the menace of illegal connections and water mafia in the city, BMC has also decided to come up strongly against illegal connections.

“After surveying the city, we found about 3,000 illegal water connections at Shivaji nagar, Govandi. We have cut these illegal connections,” said Kamble.

URL:http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/bmc-springs-into-action-to-solve-citys-water-woes/372576/