Water supply will get a weekly off

Residents in the suburbs may have to go without water for one day in a week.
Grappling with difficulties in water distribution, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is planning to impose a 100% water cut in a zonewise manner. This means suburban households in a particular zone will not receive supply on at least one weekday.

The hydraulic department of the BMC plans to initiate a pilot proposal soon. The city, however, will get a reprieve by default. Its distribution system is too complicated for the experiment.

Water brought to the city from reservoirs on the outskirts is carried to service reservoirs in various parts of the city for distribution. Depending on the supply hours, each reservoir is further sub-divided into supply zones and sub-zones.

Several proximally located residential colonies, which receive water from the same water pipeline at the same time, form one sub-zone. Thus one main zone has several sub-zones.

In order to ensure areas within a zone receive water at adequate pressure and for reasonable time, the department is toying with the idea of disconnecting supply to one or more sub-zone for a day.

“The number of consumers dependent on the supply will reduce this way. It will ensure that the remaining sub-zones receive water at better pressure and for more time,” a senior civic official said.

The plan for a running a pilot was discussed briefly before a group of political leaders in the BMC on Monday. The leaders have sought a detailed presentation before approving
the idea.

Areas in south and central Mumbai might be spared the new cut regime. “The distribution network in the island city is such that it is difficult to segregate it in zones and sub-zones.

This makes it difficult to implement the model in the island city,” a senior engineer said.

The flip side for these areas, however, is that owing to the new arrangement, the suburban areas, not subjected to a cut on a given day, will get water at a better pressure and for more time than them.

The new plan is a result of discontent brewing in parts of the city, where taps are close to running dry, officials said.

Department officials, however, were apprehensive that the city-suburbs divide might encourage a negative response from elected representatives for the pilot proposal. “We can save over 500 million litres daily if this model is set in motion. It also allows for better distribution of water supply,” another engineer said.

Get your own water, BMC tells malls, cinemas
The BMC has decided to save home taps from running dry. To bail out the city’s common man, the civic body will further curtail the supply of water to commercial establishments. 

The BMC has already subjected commercial establishments like malls, theatres, and industrial estates to a 30% cut in water supply, which is twice the cut imposed on residential consumers.

Anil Diggikar, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said the bulk consumers will be asked to develop their own alternative sources of water supply. “We fear that the water crisis will aggravate during the summer. There is a possibility of further reduction in supply to bulk consumers,” he said.

Diggikar said the corporation had received proposals from several corporate houses for buying waste water recycled at sewage treatment plants run by the BMC. Waste water treated at the Love Grove sewage treatment plant will be supplied to the Royal Western India Turf Club and the Willingdon Golf Course for non-potable purpose, he said.

A sewerage department engineer said corporates like BPCL, HPCL, and RCF were willing to use treated water.