BMC to focus on in-house gallis to end water contamination

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to clean "house gallis" of South Mumbai. House galli is a small space between two homes. The civic body uses the space for water pipelines, and it is often observed that water gets contaminated due to leakage in the pipeline in-house gallis.

Despite efforts from the BMC, people keep throwing garbage in the house gallis. "It is very easy for people to throw waste from their window to a small space between two houses. However, it is very difficult for the civic body to clean," said an official from C ward (Kalbadevi, Pydhoni and Chandanbari) of BMC.

Initially, the BMC has decided to create awareness among people to prevent them from throwing garbage in house gallis. "We will give some time to the residents to make it a habit to not throw garbage between two houses," said the official.

The BMC will distribute pamphlets on the same and clean all house gallis. " We will handout pamphlet asking people to stop garbage," said the official. However, we will monitor cleanliness and if garbage is found, housing society or building owner will be fined.

In October first week, residents of Kalbadevi, Pydhoni and Chandanbari under the C ward of BMC received contaminated water for almost two weeks. They had to procure water in a tanker to meet daily chores.

Initially, the level of contamination was low but gradually started increasing. It took almost two weeks to locate the leakage in the house galli. "We thought that there would be leakage in a major pipeline but after weeks search we traced the source of contamination. It was the pipeline in house galli," said the official.