Water supply, curtailed for a rainy day, goes awry

The five hours, once-aday water plan for the entire city that rolled out officially on Monday left some areas high and dry with low pressure and erratic supply.

On the very first day of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s new timetable to stay safe till the next monsoon, residents of Mula Road, Kothrud, Warje, Satara Road and Prabhat Road complained to the civic administration about poor supply.

The civic administration said it will take a couple of days to fix the loopholes in the new plan which will streamline the revised water supply schedule.

“The revised timetable is in place. The complaints that we received will be addressed. We hope that the new system of water distribution will be smoothened in the next few days and bring down the complaints,” Pravin Gedam, head of water department of PMC, told TOI.

Citizens, wary of how the plan will pan out in the next eight months, on Monday said the civic administration, while implementing the revised schedule, should ensure adequate water for every area and avoid unequal water distribution.

Areas like Shivajinagar and the eastern parts of the city have been facing water crises for a fortnight, long before the water cuts were implemented. The problems continued on Monday too.

Civic officials said the September 27 Mutha right bank canal breach compelled the civic body to change the water supply source from Cantonment water works to SNDT water works which caused disruptions to Shivajinagar and the nearby areas.

These areas were earlier supplied water from the Cantonment water works before the canal breached. After the breach, these areas were brought under the SNDT water works, which caused an overload, thereby affecting the supply.

Cantonment water works also caters to Pune Cantonment, Pune station, Koregaon Park, Tadiwala Road, Race Course, Kondhwa, Hadapsar, Mundhwa, Yerawada, Vishrantwadi, Kalyaninagar, Wadgaonsheri, Chandannagar, Gondhalenagar and Satavwadi.

“Most issues in these areas, which fall in the eastern parts of the city, will be resolved by Tuesday,” Gedam said. SNDT water works mostly provides water to the western areas of the city including Kothrud, Karvenagar, Baner, Bavdhan, Karve Road, Prabhat Road among others.

Before the cantonment water works became operational, many eastern parts and areas in Shivajinagar were dependent on SNDT. After the Cantonment water works became functional, Shivajinagar fell under its jurisdiction.

“After the water canal breach, SNDT is again being used to distribute water to Shivajinagar areas. Since the system of lifting water from SNDT and sending it to Shivajinagar and the eastern parts of the city had fallen into disuse, we faced some problems for a couple of days. It will be sorted out in a day or two which will streamline the distribution,” sources said.

There is trouble brewing on the water front. A group of residents from Shivajinagar, most of them from Revenue Colony, had staged an agitation outside the mayor’s official residence on Sunday to protest against inadequate and erratic water supply. They said they had been facing water cuts for 15 days and wanted adequate water during Diwali. They did not leave the premises till a written assurance was made.

Members of Sajag Nagrik Manch, a citizens’ group, have raised queries about the extensive damage to the Mutha right bank canal all along its length. It was harming the water supply system in Pune and the surrounding villages, their survey said.

The members have demanded immediate repairs to the entire canal which will improve water distribution for agriculture. They wanted the Mundhwa jackwell to function to its full capacity.

The PMC has spent Rs 100 crore to build the jackwell to treat sewage and send the water for irrigation. It can treat 550 MLD water per day, but the facility is not be fully utilised due to problems in the canal, the manch has said.