South Mumbai reservoir low on water
Shalini Nair
Even as the city is bracing itself for a no-water-day next Wednesday, graphs from the BMC’s daily water chart show that the Malabar Hill reservoir, which is in the fag-end of the water-supply system, has been receiving 40 mld (million litres daily) less water for the last two months.
The reservoir, which has a capacity of 240 mld, supplies water to A ward (Fort, Churchgate, Colaba, Nariman Point), C ward (Marine Lines, Girgaum) and D ward (Marine Drive, Malabar Hill, Napean Sea road, Peddar road and Nana Chowk). While the water shortage has affected residents of all these areas, the worst hit are those living in old buildings that do not have suction tanks for storing water. The water cut was most acute in November first week when the shortage was as high as 75 mld on certain days.
“We have been surviving on two tankers of water a day and the only answer we get from the BMC is that there is no level at Malabar Hill,” said Ajay Multani, who stays near Radio Club at Colaba. “Initially we required only one or two tankers a week. Now we get our entire water supply for the week through 10 to 15 tankers. We do not get even 10% of the water that we were getting until a couple of months ago,” said Jayant Jariwala from the Nariman Point Association. Managers of several buildings in Nariman Point approached the local ward office on Friday following which the BMC agreed to provide tanker water to them at subsidised rates of Rs 400 per tanker for commercial buildings as per their requirement. Private tankers charge Rs 750 for the same.
“The problem started in October when a major three-metre diameter water pipeline burst at Thane which took about a week to restore. This was followed by another burst at Shivaji Park in Mahim and power fluctuation at the Pise-Panjrapur water treatment plant. The scarcity is now being felt by the eastern and western suburbs too,” said S S Chauvan assistant engineer (water works) for A-ward. Treated water is pumped to the master balancing reservoirs at Bhandup and Yewai from where it is supplied to Mumbai through the 28 service reservoirs located all over. From there, water flows by gravity. The Malabar Hill reservoir, being at the southern-most end of the water supply system, is always the worst hit by a water-shortage.
Even within the areas that receive their supply from the Malabar Hill reservoir, the ones that get water supply in the evening—Fort (8.30 pm-9 pm), Colaba Backbay (6.30 pm-8.30 pm)—have to be content with very little or no water at times.
“The BMC had promised that it would complete the Mumbai 3 A project for bringing in additional 455 mld water to the city by December 2006. However, it is yet to finish the work on the new treatment plant at Pise-Panjrapur for treating this additional water. As long as this is not done, the water problem will continue,” said Ravindra Pawar, leader of NCP in the municipal corporation.