Urban News

The Hindu  28.09.2010

Restoration of partial water supply from today

Staff Reporter

No decision yet on total restoration, say VMC officials

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A team of engineers visit the plant

An expert from IIT, Madras, may visit on Oct. 1

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VIJAYAWADA: Water supply from the 10-MDG treatment plant at Ramalingeswara Nagar will be restored partially by Tuesday morning. The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is, however, non-committal about total restoration of supply from the plant. The corporation higher-ups are yet to take a decision in this regard. The VMC could erect submersible pumps with a total capacity of only 120 HP so far, though they planned to install six 20-HP motors, two 40-HP motors and one 35-HP motor on Sunday. The remaining pump sets were erected on Monday evening. A total of 235 HP was planned to ensure supply of 4.5 million gallons of water per day. At present, the corporation is using three 180-HP pump sets. The existing pump sets were kept aside after they pumped sand along with water.

The corporation could use only 80 HP and pump water to the reservoirs. The officials hoped that they would be able to restore water supply partially by Tuesday morning. They, however, said “no decision has been taken with regard to total restoration.”

Pump sets examined

A two-member team of service engineers from Kirloskar company visited the plant and examined the three 180-HP pump sets which were in use till a couple of days ago. These pump sets created tremors in the vicinity and also pumped out sand along with water. The service engineers would spell out suggestions on Tuesday.

The VMC officials said on Monday that S.R. Gandhi, an expert from IIT Madras, was expected to visit the plant on October 1. Prof. Gandhi would study the problem and suggest possible measures to revive the collection well, which sunk by one and half feet. The sand blew up in the well as the base reportedly got damaged.

Hindustan Times  27.09.2010

Corporators unite to fight water woes

The civic body had decided to set up a ‘Mumbai Water Review Standing Committee’ following a demand made by Ashish Shelar, BJP leader in the BMC. “There should be equal water distribution to the city as per population, density, green space and future development,” said Shelar.

There has been growing demand that suburbs require more civic amenities, especially water considering they are more densely populated. However, available civic data shows that the water supply of south and central Mumbai has already reduced by up to 110 million litre per day (MLD) in the last one year. According to the ‘White Paper’ (civic document) submitted to the civic standing committee in 2009, the island city was receiving 1,140 MLD water supply.

Janak Sanghavi, BJP corporator from Kalbadevi, who took initiative to meet the municipal chief, said, “Everyday more than 12 lakh people, over 50 per cent of the total island city population, come to the south Mumbai to work. So, the argument that island city is less crowded does not make sense. It would be injustice to reduce water supply here,” added Sanghavi.

Mayor Shraddha Jadhav, who represents a ward from central Mumbai, said, “I will call a meeting on Monday to find out what is the current water supply situation and how the issue could be sorted out.”

With civic elections less than a year-and-half away, corporators in the island city and the suburbs are both expected to be adamant on the issue. While Kshatriya was not available for comments, an officer from the water department said, “Immediately after the meeting, the municipal commissioner instructed the additional commissioner to schedule a meeting on Monday to discuss the issue.”