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Water Supply

Supply projects kicked off, but track record gives little reason to cheer

Thursday, 03 December 2009 11:41 administrator
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Hindustan Times 03.12.2009

Supply projects kicked off, but track record gives little reason to cheer

Mumbai’s water requirement will be 4,408 million litres a day (MLD) in the next two years and 4,949 MLD by 2021, according to the Human Development Report (HDR) compiled by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the United Nations Development Programme.

The current demand is 4,300 MLD as against the supply of 3,450 MLD.

The BMC is now banking on the Rs 1,600-crore Middle Vaitarna project, expected to be ready by 2011, which will give the city 455 MLD.

“In the next few years, dams on the Gargai and Pinjal rivers will also be ready,” said Chief hydraulic Engineer Dinesh Gondalia. The dams will give Mumbai another 1,310 MLD. However, work on these projects will start only after Middle Vaitarna is complete.

In private, civic officials aren’t hopeful of a quick resolution. An official, requesting anonymity, said it would take 10 years to get environmental clearances and funds for the dams.

The city’s track record on such projects doesn’t give much cheer either. Planning for Middle Vaitarna began 13 years ago, but work began only in 2007.

Supply problems apart, the HDR said that water contamination complaints are also on the rise. Of the 37,939 samples collected in 2007-2008, 4,730 were contaminated, mostly with the E.coli bacteria, which cause gastric problems and urinary tract infections.

Another dead end?

The plan to treat seawater and use it for drinking purposes may not take off if the opinion of former chief secretary Johny Joseph is considered. Joseph, who headed a panel to decide whether the plan was feasible, said on Wednesday: “The costs are too high compared to that of providing a conventional supply.” The BMC had identified sites to set up desalination plants.

 

Down the drain

Thursday, 03 December 2009 11:35 administrator
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Hindustan Times 03.12.2009

Down the drain

Rohit Razdan (27), a media marketing professional who lives in Andheri, plans his morning meetings while shaving. But he doesn’t realise that he ends up using 15 litres of water for his shave, something he can manage with two or three litres.

That’s typical of how the average Mumbaiite consumes water.

Mumbai’s water shortage isn’t just a story of neglect and scanty rainfall, it’s also one of wastage.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Mumbai’s per capita consumption of water is 90 litres a day. That’s well below the national norm of 150 litres.

Of the 90 litres, over 75 percent is used for non-potable purposes like bathing and washing.

About 700 million litres of the 3,450 million litres supplied to the city every day are lost to theft and leakages. Another 200 million litres are simply wasted. That’s 900 million litres that the city could have utilised to bridge the shortfall with its 4,300 million litres a day (MLD) demand.

Incidentally, 900 MLD is more than the daily requirement of Pune.

“Mumbaiites must use water judiciously. If you leave a tap open for one minute, you waste 12 litres,” said Anil Diggikar, additional municipal commissioner.

“Mumbai has enough water for 24-hour supply, but it’s wasted because there are too many leaks in the old pipe network,” said David Ehrhardt, chief executive of Castalia Ltd, a global infrastructure consultancy, in a study in June 2007 of Andheri’s water supply.

The BMC has responded to the crisis on several fronts. Apart from introducing a 15 per cent water cut for residential structures, it is undertaking awareness drives to impress upon people the need to save water. “We also introduced telescopic rates, which means that those who use more pay more,” said a civic official, requesting anonymity.

But it’s also a question of maintenance. The pipelines are over 100 years old and cannot take the pressure. On average, there are 250 major pipeline bursts every year in Mumbai, which works out to one every 36 hours.

Each time a pipe bursts, around 5 lakh people face water cuts from a few hours to two days.

“Sometimes, the bursts are due to the carelessness of agencies like the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Agency,” said the official.

“We have started replacing old mains and are constructing tunnels instead of laying new pipelines as they are easy to maintain and cannot be encroached upon,” said Diggikar. Besides, replacing pipelines is slow and cumbersome work made more difficult by a lack of maps of the underground network.

Experts said the BMC should invest in advanced equipment to detect leaks. “Even today, we follow the age-old method of putting our ears to the pipeline and listening to the gushing water to locate leaks,” said P.R. Sanglikar, retired deputy municipal commissioner.

Last Updated on Thursday, 03 December 2009 11:41
 

One person dead as Mumbaikars protest 15% water cut outside BMC office

Thursday, 03 December 2009 10:19 administrator
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The Times of India 03.12.2009

One person dead as Mumbaikars protest 15% water cut outside BMC office

AGENCIES 3 December 2009, 03:37pm IST

MUMBAI: One person has been killed and several persons were hurt when police baton-charged demonstrators protesting against water cuts in front of the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday. ( Watch Video ).

The protestor was admitted to G T Hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

An unspecified number of protestors received injuries when the riot police used force to disperse them after they tried to force their way into the BMC headquarters in south Mumbai this afternoon, officials said.

The agitators from several parts of the city and its suburbs had started collecting in front of the BMC office since noon under the umbrella of an NGO--"Swabhiman" to protest 15 percent cut introduced by the local body in view of the water shortage due to scanty monsoon.

Nitesh Rane, son of Congress leader Narayan Rane, had organized the demonstration on the issue of water cuts in the city.

Waving red flags and shouting slogans against BMC, the agitators pulled down barricades put up by the police and tried to barge into the Corporation headquarters, prompting the security personnel to lathicharge.
 
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