Cities at Mumbai’s edge clueless about rules that led to crisis

Even as Mumbai has been forced to implement strict guidelines of the Central Ground Water Authority CGWA which regulates and controls groundwater extraction the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation MBMC and Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation VVCMC appear to be clueless about themldquoThe office of the CGWA is in Thane and everything will be handled from there I have received no order from my superiors to implement the CWGA guidelinesrdquo Suresh Wakode additional chief engineer MBMC saidAsked about water supply through tankers Wakode said ldquoThe tanker culture has almost stopped in Mira Bhayandar We provide 190 MLD water Only one per cent water is supplied through tankersrdquo Wakode added that there are around 50 wells in MBMCrsquos jurisdiction and they have sufficient waterVVMC Engineer Rajendra Lad said ldquoWe donrsquot have a water crisis We did not get any guidelines from the CGWA we have no information about it either We are supplying 230 MLD water to around 24 lakh citizens in VasaiVirar Around 15 per cent can be accounted for leakage which would mean a supply of total of 195 MLD water Apart from this five to six water tankers are catering to Adivasi padas Many housing societies have private water tankers supplying water They extract water through private wells and other bore wellsrdquoAlso Read Water crisis War of words breaks out between govt and tanker bodylsquoBlame the builderrsquoAssistant municipal commissioner of P South ward Rajesh Akre said ldquoThe water crisis started at Royal Palms in Goregaon East Only the builder of Royal Palms is responsible as he did not construct an underground water tank inside the society which is mandatory to get water supply Builders arranged water from private tankers for the past many years but now suddenly that has stopped We are ready to supply them with water but I have only one tanker in the ward Itrsquos impossible for me to supply water to 20000 residents with one tanker I personally gave the society a form to apply for the construction of the underground water tank However not a single resident has approached the BMCrdquoAkre added ldquoIf society members can arrange tankers I can provide water from the Goregaon water tank point which is located near Royal PalmsrdquoAdditional Municipal Commissioner P Velrasu said ldquoOn Monday a highlevel meeting was also held between the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC and the District Collector Guardian ministers and political leaders have also held meetings regarding the issue We are trying to resolve the issue in two to three days The BMC infrastructure supplies water through pipelines Many societies do not construct auxiliary suction tanks which are mandatory to get water through BMC pipelines Currently we have only 6070 tankers across the city with each ward having one or two It is difficult to supply water to so many citizens with only these many tankers We understand that the seriousness of the issue We are also arranging more tankers to mitigate the crisisrdquolsquoWill arrange waterrsquoldquoEach ward officer has been directed to make a list of societies and hotels to solve the water issue permanently Societies without water should approach their ward office We will arrange water for them We are using an existing system with a new system to resolve the issue Societies will have to construct auxiliary suction tanksrdquo Velrasu addedVelrasu added that some buildings which have installed auxiliary suction tanks have been given water supply The water is delivered through a pump considering hilly and undulating terrains ldquoFor buildings without the tanks a remark is made in the NOC However builders do not build them as they are not interestedUltimately the building becomes dependent on water tankersrdquo Velrasu added He explained that the crisis in Royal Palms is owing to the lack of one such tank70Approx no of water tankers with BMCBusinesses at riskSecretary of MWTA Mumbai Water Tankers Association Rajesh Thakur said that the businesses of around 350 tanker owners are at risk as all vehicles are lying on the roads ldquoConsequently families of around 15000 people engaged as drivers and cleaners are directly affected How will they run their houses and provide education and food to their families The government must think about themrdquo Thakur said According to Thakur the following number of tankers are provided to various entities in MumbaiHotel 300 tankersCoastal Road Project 200 TankersNhava Sheva 100 tankersMumbai Metro Project 200 TankersHospitals 4050 tankersBeautification work on divider100 TankersIndian Railway 200 tankersat Bandra Terminus Kurla Mumbai Central and CSMTEach tanker contains 10000 litres water