Water crisis in east Pune deepens; PMC declares fresh cut tomorrow

Time of India

8 hours ago

Pune: Despite the city receiving significant rainfall and reservoirs brimming, the water shortage in east Pune has worsened, with the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) announcing yet another cut on Thursday.
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A few days ago, several eastern parts saw a supply disruption. Now, a fresh shutdown has been declared for Thursday, due to maintenance at the Bund Garden water treatment plant. Water supply will remain cut off for the day, and on Friday, residents will get low-pressure supply.
The affected areas include Yerwada, Sangamwadi, Tingrenagar, Vidyanagar, Vadgaonsheri, Kharadi, Chandan Nagar, Somnath Nagar, Viman Nagar, Lohegaon, Vishrantwadi, Nagpur Chawl, Yerwada Jail Quarters, Press Colony, Kalyani Nagar, Dhanori, Kalwad, Phulenagar, SAPRAS, Shantinagar, Pratiknagar, and Kasturba Vasahat.
Residents, however, said the problem goes deeper than just repair work. They alleged the crisis is being fuelled by the tanker lobby and possibly by an artificially created shortage.
"Two new tanks have come up near the airport and since Aug the supply schedule has been recalibrated. The pressure has dropped, timings have been reduced, and that has created major issues for societies like ours," said Anagha Dhara, secretary of Lunkad Valencia society in Vimannagar.
She said that larger societies have been forced to depend heavily on tankers. "Earlier, we used to get four hours of supply. Now it has dropped to nearly half, sometimes only 40% of what we got earlier. In our small society, we still manage with one or two tankers a day — but big complexes are forced to order up to 20 tankers a day. Tanker water itself is of poor quality and makes people sick, borewells are polluted, and PMC tankers don't come when asked," Dhara said.
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Even parts of Wadgaon Sheri and Kharadi have not been spared. A Wadgaon Sheri resident, who did not wish to be named, said, "Our society is at the tail-end of the main line, so we get the worst supply. As against 3-4 hours of water earlier, we now get barely half an hour to an hour daily. And instead of evenings, supply comes late at night with low pressure. PMC had promised us tankers, but now those are diverted elsewhere; so we have to pay Rs2,000 per tanker privately.
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Deepak Patil, chairman, Kharadi Housing Societies Welfare Association said they have collected data of around 33 housing societies in Kharadi which are collectively spending over Rs84 lakh per month on utility water provided by tankers and over Rs28 lakh on drinking water.
"We recently approached PMC to bring to their attention the ongoing and long-standing water supply issues in the Kharadi area. Many societies have been facing inadequate or irregular PMC water supply, forcing residents to depend on private water tankers for their daily needs.
Despite repeated requests and follow-ups, there has been no significant or permanent solution to this issue," Patil said.
Prashant Kadam, member of a local residents' group in Wadgaon Sheri, said, "Every now and then this issue occurs and several societies are complaining about water supply issues. PMC officials keep claiming they are trying to fix this issue but they never really do. Supplies have been restricted, with last few days being worse."
A PMC water supply department official admitted the supply was still restricted but said the situation would improve soon. "The inlet valves of the Viman Nagar tanks are being refurbished, and similar work has been completed in Dhanori, Vishrantwadi and Lohgaon. Thursday's shutdown will also help us plug leakages across the network. Supply should normalise in the coming days," the official said.