Mumbai: Water crisis grips Kalina

Around 30000 residents in Kalina Santacruz East have been struggling with an acute water shortage for the past month With no consistent water supply from the BMC residents are forced to rely on expensive water tankers spending between Rs 40000 to Rs 50000 per society in the last 30 days Allegations of a growing nexus between the BMC and tanker mafia have left locals frustrated as they face dirty smelly water and rising costs while the issue persistsRajashri Jadhav a resident of Babu Niwas showing the poor quality of waterWater shortages began before the Ganpati festival in the Sundar Nagar and Mani Pada areas of Kalina The water pressure was already very low but day by day residents began getting dirty and smelly water They are also forced to buy drinking water separately because of these issues midday received a complaint from Kalina residents on Tuesday midday visited the area and found that all societies including slum residents have no BMC water and tankers are refilling water tanks in each societyRaj Kutir SocietyRaj Kutir Society has depended on tanker supply for the last month spending almost Rs 50000 on water tankers Society chairman Mukundan Nair said ldquoWe order one tanker from BMC daily and pay Rs 1500 for it Private tankers charge more and their water is also dirty and smelly This problem started before the Ganpati festival but it has not been resolved yet We have spent almost Rs 45000 on water tankers in the past 30 days The BMC should provide water free of charge if they fail to supply itrdquoSiddhivinayak SocietyResidents of Sundar Nagar have also faced a water crisis for the last month They told midday that they are paying Rs 3000 for 10000 litres of water and ordering two tankers The residents are buying drinking water from outside sources A resident Shruti Sonthalia a teacher said ldquoWe get dirty water from the tanker which is not suitable for drinking We only use tanker water to wash utensils BMC water used to come for barely an hour daily but has now stopped altogetherrdquo Sama Patel added ldquoWe are spending Rs 6000 daily on water that we cannot drink and are also buying drinking waterrdquo Another resident Suchita Bhatt said ldquoWe have been facing these issues since Ganpati and now Navratri is approaching We are desperate for waterrdquoSamrat SRA CHSAround 100 residents have not got water for the last 30 days They are buying water from tankers at Rs 4000 for 10000 litres Speaking with midday society chairman Sunil Salvi said ldquoWe are getting dirty water with a bad odour from the tankers The tanker mafia is exploiting us The BMC needs to resolve this issue as soon as possiblerdquo Committee member Vijay Mahadik said ldquoWe havenrsquot got drinking water for the past month BMC officers keep making excuses about burst pipes damaged lines and broken valves as reasons for shortage These excuses are fake and baseless There is a nexus between the BMC and the tanker mafiardquoBabu NiwasResident Rajeshri Anil Jadhav said ldquoWe get BMC water daily for only 15 minutes and that water is dirty and stinks We have to boil it before drinking itrdquoTejaswini SocietyThe society secretary said We spent almost R40000 on tankers in September We order 20000 litres of water daily Many patients and senior citizens live in our society We should get clean water free of chargerdquoMani Pada ChawlAround 1000 residents in Mani Pada have had no water for the last two days They have not been able to bathe Resident Ganpat Gaikwad said ldquoI havent bathed in the last two days Tankers cannot come inside our chawl because of the narrow lanesrdquo Another resident Anita Waghmare said ldquoWe will protest We cannot afford to buy water from tankers and shopsrdquoBMC denies water shortageDeputy Hydraulic Engineer Mangesh Shewale of the BMC flatly denied any shortage in the area stating ldquoOur supply is intactrdquo However when reporters confronted him with evidence of the acute water shortage he changed his tune ldquoWe are working on this issue and trying to resolve it as soon as possible Our engineers will visit the Kalina area tomorrow to check all connections and supply tanksrdquo he stated