40% water is lost in leakages: Councillors

The water level over the catchment area stands comfortably at 12.9 lakh ml, but the city is still wrangling with water woes.

Municipal councillors on Wednesday said that the age-old pipelines have led to turbulent water supply in the city. Bhalchandra Motiram Shirsat, a corporator from Ghatkopar, said a lot of water is lost due to leakage in the 4,000-km long water pipelines.

“The water cuts have been withdrawn, but civic administration hasn’t monitored leakages due to damaged pipelines. In the island city, over 40% water is lost due to leakage,” said Shirsat. However, the data procured from the civic body states that 20% is lost due to cases of water thefts and leakages.

Water loss due to damaged pipelines at Tansa lake was also bought to the notice. “The BMC is withdrawing 50 MLD (million litres per day) less water from Tansa lake due to damaged pipeline,” added Ashish Shelar, a BJP corporator from Bandra. Shelar has also launched an E-agitation against the BMC. A community called ‘waterless friends’ is formed on Facebook, which will provide a forum for citizens to voice their water concerns.
The leakages have been so magnanimous that the water quantity in the reservoirs has also been affected. Congress corporator Pramod Mandrekar said, “Water capacity in the Malabar Hill reservoir stands at 250 MLD, while only 208 MLD is available. Also, the 45-pound pressure falls flat to eight pounds in a stretch of one km. This states amount of water lost due to leakages.”
Councillors in the standing committee demanded that BMC should review and revive its water distribution system. They claimed that the citizens are still grappling with 100 MLD less water. “The city requires 4,400 MLD but so far only 3,395 MLD is being supplied. Uneven water distribution continues to be the main problem,” said BJP MLA and corporator Yogesh Sagar. Zones should be set up under which population density should be monitored and water should be supplied accordingly, advised Sagar.
Hydraulic chief engineer Vinay Deshpande said, “Welding machines will be made available in every ward to prevent leakages. Valves will be repaired in all pipelines.”