::IMC::

Mumbai won’t get more than 2,900 mld water daily till July 15, says MCGM chief
Date: 18-Feb-2010

Mumbai metropolitan region received a total of 9,36,504 million liters of potable water supply in 2009, which was much less than the average supply in many previous years, due to scanty rainfall during the monsoon. In view of this, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) will not be able to increase the daily water supply to the city in excess of 2,900 million liters till July 15, said Mr Swadheen Kshatriya, MCGM Commissioner.

The MCGM Commissioner was addressing an interactive meeting on "The Problems of Water Supply and Cleanliness" organized jointly by Indian Merchants’ Chamber, Priyadarshni Academy, Rotary Club of Bombay, Property Owners Association, Nepean Sea Road Citizens’ Forum & other prominent NGOs. Apart from him, Mr R. A Rajeev, Additional Municipal Commissioner (Conservancy & Waste Management), Mr Anil Diggikar, Additional Commissioner (Water Supply) also addressed the meeting.

Mr Nanik Rupani, IMC’s Mumbai Development Committee, introduced the theme of discussion.

IMC President Mr Gul Kripalani, who welcomed the distinguished speakers, said that Maharashtra was paying a heavy price for its high degree of industrialization and urbanization. The pressures created by demands of building infrastructure for growing population were having a severe impact on the environment, particularly evident in the deteriorating quality of its water.

He said: "Mumbai is facing an estimated shortfall in water supply of about 400 million liters of the 4,300 million liters needed daily. Many localities of the city of 18 million inhabitants receive water only a few hours in the day, forcing the residents to buy water at exorbitant prices from touts or water tank owners.”

"Mumbai’s growing water shortage is a potentially dangerous trigger for nationwide social unrest. The government has already been criticized for failing to address the basic problems of water and electricity shortages, faced by both industry and citizenry. It needs to be more careful about how it handles the sensitive water issue in future," the IMC President cautioned.
Mr Swadheen Kshatriya recalled that on assuming the charge of the Municipal Commissioner, he had made two commitments -- to overcome the problem of water shortage in Mumbai, and to improve the financial situation of the MCGM. Mumbai traditionally got water supply through pipelines from far away reservoirs such as Tansa, Vaitarna, Bhatsa, Tulsi and Vihar. But when the catchment areas of these reservoir received less rainfall due to failure monsoon in any particular year, the city was left with few options.

About 20% to 25 % of the water supply was leaked away along the pipelines or pilfered on the way. Also, a substantial portion of the potable water supplied to the city was being recklessly used and wasted for washing vehicles, flushing toilets, watering gardens and for industrial purposes.

The MCGM had now planned to augment water supplies by implementing additional reservoir projects -- Middle Vaitarna ( 455 mld), Gargai ( 455 mld) and Pinjal (868 mld). Work on these projects was progressing as scheduled.

He said: "In addition, we are also setting large water recycling facilities in public-private partnership (PPP) mode at Ghatkopar, Mulund, Versova and Colaba for processing the waste and grey water, which was at present flowing into the sea. On the successful model of the desalination plant set up by Chennai Petroleum Corporation, we are also planning to set up similar projects in Mumbai.

"MCGM has already taken some steps towards harvesting rainwater, and more economic use of water by cooperative housing societies and others. All these measures will be able to provide sufficient water to Mumbai city in the next quarter century," he said.

Mr R A Rajeev described at length the various measures being implemented by the MCGM for creating a clean environment in the city.

He said that MCGM’s department was required to clear every day about 6,000 tonnes of domestic garbage and 2,400 tonnes of construction debris from various localities and process them by way of aerobic composting, RDF and biodegeneration at the dumping and landfill sites at Gorai, Mulund, and Deonar -- all on a PPP basis.

"As the Gorai site has reached its optimum capacity, the MCGM implemented a project for reclaiming the ecological balance and beautification of the site at a cost of Rs.50 crore. "Now we are generating 1,000 cu metres of methane (greenhouse gas) from the site and generating 3MW of electricity. In addition, we have earned carbon credit to the tune of over Rs.74 crore " Mr Rajeev said.

Mrs Bakul Patel, Chairperson of Priyadarshni Academy’s Forum for Environment Protection, urged the MCGM to encourage the cooperative housing societies in the city to set up rainwater harvesting projects, to stop the use of potable water for construction of buildings, and also to prevent the water tanker Mafia from fleecing the citizens.

Mr Neelu Gidwani, general secretary of Nepean Sea Road Citizens’ Forum, urged MCGM to provide better conservation services to the slum dwellers "who constitute 60% of the population of the locality."

Rotarian Nandan Damani sought MCGM’s active cooperation with Rotary Club of Bombay in its campaign for creating public awareness on the need to use potable water more sensibly.

Mr Niranjan Hiranandani said that builders should be encouraged to construct eco-friendly "green houses" and to undertake rain harvesting in a big way.

Arvind Pradhan
Director General