Water wasted is water ost. Last week, a pipeline burst near Sane Gurujinagar sent gallons gushing down the road before the civic body rushed workers to identify and fix the ault. It was a repeat on Friday in Laxminagar near Dattawadi police station when another underground pipeline burst and water flowed. Eight families in a chawl had water gushing into their homes for halfan-hour as if it were a flood.
Machinery used to dig up the road for drainage work had punctured the 20-inch pipeline leading out of the Parvati water works.
“Excavators were at work for augmenting the drainage system. One of them broke the pipeline. Repairs to the fault were being carried out till late on Friday evening. Areas around Shivdarshan and Dattawadi will face some water supply problems,“ V G Kulkarni, head of Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) water supply department, said.
Jyoti Mate, a resident of Laxminagar said the road digging near the police station had started since morning. An earthmover was employed to scoop out portions of the road.“The underground water pipeline punctured around 12.15pm, and water started gushing out,“ Mate said. Chawl no 80 in Laxminagar located down the road bore the brunt. “The road slopes here and water entered eight houses. We are facing water cuts because of the scanty rainfall last monsoon. Such wastage is criminal,“ Mate added.
Poonam Abhang, resident of the chawl, said the flow was so fast that it filled both the rooms of her house in minutes.“The sacks of grain kept on the ground became wet,“ Abhang said. She said they had a new born baby in the house. “The muddy water can cause infection to the baby. We tried draining the water, but more flooded the rooms. We gave up after some time,“ Abhang added.
Vanita Haribhakt, another resident, said the flow could not be stemmed quickly . Residents then opened lids of the manholes to allow the water to drain into them. “The flow stopped after 45 minutes. By then my house was filled with slush. The bags of grain were damaged,“ Haribhakt added.
“We will register an offence against the contractor for causing damage to public property,“ senior inspector of the Dattawadi police station, Shridhar Jadhav said.
When he found that the punctured pipeline could not be repaired immediately , he sent two staff to tell the Parvati water works officials to shut off supply . The PMC officials reached the spot after and stopped the leaking pipeline, he added.
Source : TOI
