Puneites may face 20% water cut from Sunday

With two of the four dams that supply drinking water to the city having gone dry, officials are planning to ration the existing stocks of water

The delay in the arrival of the monsoons is going to have affect Puneites' in a big way. Officials have confirmed that two of the four dams that supply drinking water to Pune are almost empty. To cope, the PMC is planning to impose a 20 per cent water cut from Sunday, so that the existing stores of water can be made to last till July 30.

The four dams for Pune are at Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon and Temghar. Varasgaon and Temghar are almost empty. Vijay Ghogre,u00a0the PMC executive engineer, irrigation,u00a0u00a0 told MiD-DAY, "Pune city requires 1,000 MLD water every day. Considering the water levels in Khadakwasla and Panshet dams, the water will only last till July 15. If we reduce the water supply by 20 per cent, it will last till July 30."

He added that last year, till June 18, there had been 319 mm rainfall in the Khadakwasla catchment area, but this year, there has been only 23 mm of rainfall. "As a result, the combined water in storage in Khadakwasla and Panshet is only 1.14 Thousand Million Cubic Feet (TMC) as against last year's 2.5 TMC," he said. According to Ghore, a meeting is to be convened today to decide on the water cut. Dr PCS Rao of the Indian Metrological Department agreed that rain is not likely in the next to two to three days. Explaining the reason for delay in monsoons, he said, "The south-westerly winds coming from the Indian Ocean are weak. As a result, the monsoon has not moved forward since June 7. However, a delay in the arrival of the monsoon does not necessarily mean deficient rainfall. In 2007, the monsoon hit the city late on June 18, but the rainfall was 106 per cent."