City goes dry before ‘dry day’
Sandeep Ashar
Call it a dress rehearsal for a waterless day. Even as the city was saving water for Wednesday, when BMC will not supply any water, areas in Colaba, Malabar Hill, Ghatkopar, Kurla and Powai experienced water cut, with supply mains to these areas developing technical glitches.
A 72-inch pipeline carrying water to the municipal wards of Kurla and Ghatkopar ruptured at Tata Compound, Saki Vihar Road, on Saturday evening. A staff of 40 civic officials worked round the clock, but supply was restored only on Sunday evening, leaving areas like Asalpha village, Saki Naka, parts in Kurla and Powai with little or no water during daytime. Parts in Kurla and Ghatkopar didn’t receive any water till late in the night.
Concretisation work on Madam Cama Road in Colaba, damaged a daily operated valve of a water pipeline. “Supply was affected in parts of Colaba and Malabar Hill,” said hydraulic engineer Deepak Kajbaje. A BMC team was working on a warfooting to repair the damage.
The city will go without water for an entire day from 10 am on December 27 to 10 am next day, with BMC planning to carry out major works at Pise Panjrapur for augmentation of water supply. “For this, it is necessary to isolate the Yewai reservoir and trunk mains at Panjrapur,” said Kajbaje. There will be an additional supply of 155 million litre daily after the completion of work, but the benefit will be felt only from February next year.
Politics on water
“Mumbai will suffer 20 per cent water cut for five consecutive days from January 3-7 because of pending work at the Pise Panjrapur reservoir,” said Kajbaje.
The water scarcity, said political leaders, could well become a burning issue during the BMC polls. “We will be campaigning in January. People might vent their fury on us,” said Congress corporator Aslam Sheikh.