Urban News

The Times of India 17.07.2009

PUNE: The city seems set to get some respite from the water cut with the state irrigation department releasing water from the Khadakwasala dam on Thursday evening.

Though the present water cut has not been officially withdrawn, the water discharged from the dam into the Mutha right bank canal is currently being lifted by the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) at its water treatment centres. This is in addition to the water being supplied to the PMC through the pipeline running between the Khadakwasala dam and the Parvati water works.

PMC water department head Pramod Nirbhavne said water was flowing in the canal at the rate of 1,000 cusecs. "We have, therefore, decided to provide water once a day," he added.

Nirbhavne, however, said that the alternate day water supply may be resorted to again if it doesn't rain much and if the water release through the canal is stopped by the irrigation department. "We will review the situation in a day or two to streamline the water supply," he added.

State water resources minister Ajit Pawar had on Thursday instructed the irrigation department not to release water from any dam which was less than 80 per cent full.

Avinash Surve, superintending engineer of the Pune irrigation division, told TOI that the irrigation department started releasing water from the Khadakwasala dam on Thursday evening since the dam's storage capacity had increased to 91 per cent. "We are releasing the water from the canal and not through the river," he said.

Asked why the irrigation department was not waiting for the dam to be filled to capacity, Surve explained that water had to be released as around 10 per cent of the dam's water storage capacity has to be kept reserved for "flood absorption".

Asked whether the irrigation department would continue to release water only through the canal, Surve said, "The canal can accommodate water release up to a rate of 1,150 cusecs. If it rains heavily in the catchment areas and the dam level goes up to 93 per cent, we will have to release water through the Mutha river."

Meanwhile, the rains in the catchment areas during the last couple of days have helped build up the collective storage in the four dams (Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon and Temghar) to 7.55 TMC (27.44%) on Thursday.

This is close to the storage mark in these dams on the same day last year. The four dams had storage of 29.02% on July 16, 2008.