Water stolen, but ‘unaccounted for’
Mumbai: Here is why a 24-hour water cut and the addition of 155 million litres a day (mld) from the Mumbai III-A Water Supply Project will not fully solve Mumbai’s water woes.
At the Damu Nagar slum in Kandivli, a well-entrenched system of water theft proceeds from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s transmission mains. Leakages and incidents of theft such as this one comprise an astounding 10 to 15 per cent of water supply, called “unaccounted for water” or “non revenue water”. While the BMC’s Hydraulic Engineering department officials refused to comment on the Damu Nagar incident, they did confirm that tenders are in for a comprehensive water audit, an agency will be fixed as soon as the election code of conduct is lifted.
Meanwhile, BMC’s engineers and labourers finished work on overhauling 8-feet wide butterfly valves well ahead of the schedule and normal water supply to the city resumed from Wednesday night. Around 40 engineers and 150 labourers participated in this operation.
The current operation is the part of the Mumbai III A project that is supposed to bring in additional supply of 350 mld.
Already, 200 mld is being drawn from Bhatsa dam, through overloading the existing system. The current operation will prepare the system not only for the existing load but also for the additional 155 MLD that will come into the system by the end of January.
The entire operation will be carried out in three phases. Phase 1 consists of connecting two new pipelines of 12 km each from Bhatsa dam to the existing trunk mains. Phase II involves connecting pipelines from a new pumping station in Panjarapur to the water mains supplying water to the city. Phase III is monitoring the working of the pumping station and the filtration plant. All three phases will be complete by January end.
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