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Water Supply

War within MC over water meters

Sunday, 13 September 2009 16:09 administrator
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The Times of India 13.09.2009

War within MC over water meters

Rajan Walia, TNN 13 September 2009, 03:49am IST

CHANDIGARH: Once again, UT municipal commissioner Roshan Sunkaria and mayor Kamlesh are at loggerheads.

This time, the issue is related to installation of water meters in 22,000 houses in UT?s rehabilitation colonies, slums and villages.

The municipal corporation has been losing revenue worth crores of rupees annually for the past 10 years, as residents of these areas use water without paying for it.

The MC’s memorandum of understanding with the Centre requires it to take reformist measures for earning higher revenue if it wants to avail the grants under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

Sunkaria has been supporting the installation of meters in these houses.

However, Congress councillors and the mayor are apparently not very supportive of the move.

Nominated councillor AP Sanwaria said, ‘We have raised this issue in MC house many times. However, the mayor is just not willing to allow discussion on the matter.’

Earlier, Kamlesh and Sunkaria had been in strong opposition when the mayor had sought certain powers. Sunkaria had not accepted that demand saying municipal rules did not allow for it.

Residents in urban areas of the UT have to pay for the water as houses there have meters installed.

Kamlesh said installing meters in colonies, slums and villages did not make sense as urban residents get far better supply.

‘The day they get supply like their urban counterparts, we will start charging them according to the meters. But certainly not before that,’ insisted the mayor.

Sunkaria admitted that the mayor had not been allowing the issue to be discussed in MC’s general house.

He stated they would try to have the matter raised during the MC house’s monthly meeting in September end.

 

PCMC plans to build 28 reservoirs

Thursday, 10 September 2009 12:29 administrator
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The Times of India 10.09.2009

PCMC plans to build 28 reservoirs

Siddharth Gaikwad, TNN 10 September 2009, 12:02am IST

PUNE: The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will be constructing 28 water reservoirs in various localities to increase water storage capacity so that the essential commodity can be supplied for 24 hours day.

Municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma while explaining the logic behind constructing such large number of water tanks, said, "The PCMC lifts 340 MLD water from Pavana river at Ravet. It purifies this water at the plants in Nigdi and then supplies it as drinking water. Water is supplied only if there is pumping of water from the purification plants. There are very few water storage reservoirs in the township. If the people want to have 24x7 water supply then we need to store water in tanks which can be supplied to the residents even if there is no pumping of water."

Sharma said, "In Phase I of water supply approved under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission(JNNURM) scheme, the PCMC has included projects of Pavana dam - Nigdi water pipeline and water supply scheme for the newly merged vilages. The union government has now approved phase II of water supply plan which has a total expenditure of Rs 140 crore. The PCMC will be increasing the internal water supply network, constructing water reservoirs and increasing the transmission network under the phase II of water supply."

He said, "The union government will bear 50 per cent of the total expenditure, the state will bear 20 percent while the PCMC will bear 30 percent of the total expenditure. In foreign countries the cities have built a large storage capacity due to which they can store water that will be sufficient for them for five to six days. We also need to have large storage capacity so that the water can be supplied whenever needed."

Speaking to TOI on Wednesday, Ambadas Chavan, additional city engineer and chief of water supply department, PCMC said, "The PCMC will be constructing a total of 28 water reserrvoirs in phase I and II of the JNNURM scheme. The construction of water tanks has to be completed by March 2011."

 

Political parties in BMC want roll back of water cut

Thursday, 10 September 2009 11:40 administrator
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The Times of India 10.09.2009

Political parties in BMC want roll back of water cut

Sharad Vyas, TNN 10 September 2009, 12:36am IST
MUMBAI: With an eye on the upcoming assembly elections, political parties in the BMC have demanded that municipal corportaion immediately roll back the ongoing water cut.

With the gradual rise in lake levels, the amount of water available in all six lakes now stands at 9,15,224 million litres, which should be enough to meet city's demand for the next season beginning October, said members of the standing committee on Wednesday. However, additional municipal commissioner, Anil Diggikar, in charge of the water department, said the administration will take stock of the situation at the end of this month.

"As of now, we only have 75% of the reserves as compared to last year. Ideally, full quota is reached by the end of September every year. However, if that does not happen this year, then we will have to see what can be done to meet demand for the next season,'' he said. Meanwhile, as another measure to tide over the crisis, the BMC has decided increase the height of spillway gates at Tansa, one of the major lakes. Increasing the height of 38 gates by 30 cm will give the BMC an additional 6,000 million litres of water annually. The existing height of the gates is 128.63 Town Hall Datum (THD).

Monday saw two lakes overflowing, including Tulsi (one of the smallest lakes in the city, supplying about 18 million litres of water a day out of the total supply of 3,500 mld).
 
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