Business Line 26.04.2013
Mumbai gets enough water even as other areas suffer
Pooja Kamble, a homemaker from Ramtirth village in Beed
district in central Maharashtra, walks 15 km in the blistering heat to
fetch water for her family. At the end of her ordeal, she manages to get
16 litres of drinking water. She makes two trips a day to the community
well, which is the only well in a 30-km vicinity that has not gone dry.
Meanwhile, 475 km away, Shalini Pant, a working mother
staying in suburban Mumbai uses 80 litres of water, in her washing
machine for washing the soiled T-shirts of her son after he returns from
football practice.
Today, in Maharashtra, the hinterland is facing the
worst drought in decades, while on the coast, in cities such as Mumbai,
Navi Mumbai and Ratnagiri there is surplus water. According to the
statistics of the Hydraulic Department of the Municipal Corporation of
Greater Mumbai (MCGM), the six lakes, which supply to Mumbai
cumulatively have 326,405 thousand million litres of water, while last
year it had 316,886 thousand million litres. In effect, the financial
capital has more water this year than the previous year.
Vijay Khabale, spokesperson for the MCGM told Business Line that
this year the water situation is very comfortable and the citizens have
been spared water cuts. However, due to the ageing water distribution
system, there are 20 per cent losses. These losses would be halved in a
few years when the water gets routed through the 14 underground tunnels
that are under construction, he said.
Khabale pointed out that, unlike the existing pipelines,
it would be very difficult to siphon off water from the tunnels. Mumbai
city, with its current population of 12.5 million, gets 3,350 million
litres of water per day. Its per capita water availability 180 litres
per day, on an average the supply is for 90 minutes to 4 hours.
A senior official in the Hydraulic Department said that
the city manages to get enough drinking water in spite the mushrooming
population because of the vision and the foresight of the British
administrators. rahul.wadke@thehindu.co.in
