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Water Supply

AMC’s shutdown stretches beyond 24 hours

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The Times of India       17.09.2014

AMC’s shutdown stretches beyond 24 hours

 

AURANGABAD: The 24-hour mega shut down of Aurangabad's water supply system, which was supposed to come to an end at 9 am on Tuesday, has been extended for about 7-8 hours, with the authorities failing to complete the repair work within the stipulated time.

Repair work was initiated on the two pipelines, of 1,400-mm and 700-mm diameter, that draw water from the Jayakwadi water reservoir, located 47km from the city. The system lifts about 130-135 MLD water.

An official of the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) water supply department said that engineers were still working on four different locations between Jayakwadi dam and the city. "Repair work of the 1,400-mm diameter pipeline was almost over by 5 pm and engineers are testing it before switching on the system. However, it will take some more time to put it into service," the official said on Tuesday, but refused comment on how much time the civic body would need to restore the supply. He said that the work on the 700-mm diameter pipeline was complete and that it has started supplying water.

"Since water is drawn from the reservoir located nearly 47km from the city, it will take hours to restore the supply system," the official said.

AMC sources said that it would be impossible for the engineers to complete the work by Tuesday night. "At the most, they would succeed in supplying 50-55 MLD water till late in the evening. This will certainly create shortfall of water," the official said.

Citizens across Aurangabad started feeling the brunt of the shutdown, especially with it extended, on Tuesday.

Opposition leader in the AMC Raosaheb Gaikwad said that residents in Kanchanwadi, Nakshatrawadi and Vitkheda have been facing a severe shortage of water over the past four-five days, with taps running dry. "The residents could not get water during their last routine turn and now the system is completely dry. People are going without water for the past few days; they cannot stretch this any more. The administration should make provisions immediately," said Gaikwad.

"Citizens are are co-operating with the AMC authorities, because they want to see a significant improvement in the water supply system in the coming days," said corporator Mir Hidayat Ali.

With no sign of immediate relief, people are clueless about how to mitigate the water shortage and manage enough water to meet their daily requirements, Ali said. 

 

Thousands rush to regularize illegal water connections

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The Times of India        16.09.2014 

Thousands rush to regularize illegal water connections

 

RAJKOT: Thousands of citizens swarmed the three zonal offices of the Rajkot Municipal Corporation on Monday to apply for regularizing their illegal water connections.

RMC had set September 15 as the deadline for regularizing such connections. From today, the civic body will impose a fine of Rs 3,000 to all those households and other establishments where illegal connections are detected. Acting tough, the RMC has also decided to lodge a police complaint against those who are found drawing water illegally even after being penalized.

On Tuesday alone nearly 2,000 applications, for regularization of water connections, were received at the three offices. V C Rajyaguru, city engineer of the water works department, told TOI, "We are going to keep all three zonal offices open till midnight and accept the applications. RMC charges Rs 2,000 for new water connections.

RMC has launched a massive drive against illegal water connections in the city since July 15 and has so far disconnected over 1,800 illegal connections, most of them residential. "There are around 12,000 illegal water connections and 2.57 lakh regular water connections in the city," said an official.

RMC is aiming to reduce the non-revenue water supply and increase regular water connections. "Earlier, we had regularized around 4,000 illegal connections," he said.

Sources said that most of the illegal water connections were found in newly developing residential areas in the east and west zones.

 

 

Surat Municipal Corporation allows industries to buy water from other sources

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The Times of India        08.09.2014 

Surat Municipal Corporation allows industries to buy water from other sources

 

Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has allowed the industrial units located in Pandesara to buy water for their industrial use from other sources as SMC is unable to supply, required amount of water to the industry.

"We are losing a lot of business due to lack of water. Diwali is just couple of months away and we can't afford to keep our units closed. So we requested Municipal Commissioner and explained our situation who has issued permission to buy water from other sources till SMC supplies to our demand." Said Jitu wakharia, President Pandesara Industrial Association.

"We know SMC water is cheaper than outside sources but what can we do if we don't get the required quantity of water?" asked an industrialist from Pandesara.

Against the daily requirement of 100 MLD of water SMC was able to provide just half the water to industries since last 7 to 10 days.

"Low pressure was responsible for the less quantity of water being supplied to industries. We are working on it and will rectify the problem in coming days." Said an official from SMC. "We are also working on supply of 40 MLD of treated water to industries. Once that happens in few days things will be all right." he added. 

 


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