Urban News

AMID a worsening water crisis and never-ending pipe bursts, the BMC’s hydraulic engineering department is struggling to handle the workload, plagued as it is by a manpower crisis.

Mayor Shraddha Jadhav on Sunday instructed water works officials to fix leaking pipes within 48 hours of a complaint being lodged, but for the last two years, 25 per cent of the posts of engineers in the department are vacant, as are 47 per cent of the posts in the labour section of the maintenance wing, the latter for two years now.

Of the 889 posts of engineers, including junior engineers, sub-engineers, and assistant engineers, 216 are vacant, according to data from the city engineers’ department. The maintenance section, which plays the most important role during a pipe burst or leakage, has 5,768 posts for manual labourers, and 2,724 are vacant. In 2008, the department had added 2,014 posts to the existing 3754, citing an urgent need, but not a single one has been filled.

A hydraulic engineering department official said there is a general need for more qualified engineers to fix leaking pipes, and the most acute need is felt in the junior engineering section. Out of the total 319 such posts, 105 are vacant. “The junior engineer is the most junior technically qualified person who can immediately get work started on a leaking or burst pipeline. At the ward level, there are at least 10-15 minor to major pipe bursts in a day and it becomes difficult to attend to these because of the staff shortage,” said the official.

Pramod Guhe, deputy hydraulic engineer (maintenance), said, “There are a variety of reasons for posts lying vacant for a long time¿ promotions, retirement and lack of expertise amongst job seekers.”

A senior official from the hydraulic engineering department said his department has repeatedly urged the labour officer to speed up recruitment. “We have advertised in newspapers, done away with many qualification requirements. For the labour section we have even offered walk-in jobs. Still, the response is not as desired.”

Between January 1 and March 31, the city has seen at least 33 major pipe bursts and 64 heavy leakages along Mumbai’s water distribution network, resulting in a total wastage of over 240 million litres of water. Moreover, 854 cases of major and minor bursts and leakages had occurred in 2009 alone.

Repaired pipe bursts again
Barely a few hours after the BMC had repaired a burst pipeline near Vashi Naka at Chembur, it burst again on Sunday at another place, a shot distance from the earlier one. The 32-inch pipeline on R C Marg has been laid by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to supply water to its buildings where project-affected persons have been rehabilitated. It burst at Manish Vijay Society on Sunday, was repaired after midnight, and then burst five feet away on the same stretch on Sunday morning, an official of the hydraulic engineering department confirmed.

The MMRDA had approached the BMC to repair the pipe, but civic officials struggled. “The MMRDA pipeline is of glass reinforced plastic while BMC waterworks officials are used to repairing pipes of mild steel and cast iron. Though we have managed to fix the pipeline, we have asked the MMRDA to replace that particular stretch as it is vulnerable,” said the official. The BMC is hoping to repair the second burst by Sunday night. The MMRDA said on Saturday that it will pay the civic body for the repair.