After 3 years, parched again: Water on alternate days in Old Panvel

After three years, water scarcity has come back to haunt the residents of Old Panvel. The Panvel Municipal Corporation (PMC) has issued a public notice saying that starting from May 28, water will only be supplied on alternate days in the Old Panvel area and residents are requested to cooperate with the civic body. The water levels in the Dehrang dam, which supplies water to the city, has dropped to unusable levels and the civic body does not have adequate water to meet the demand.

The situation is likely to improve only after the arrival of the monsoon in the second week of June. Until then, residents will only receive supply on alternate days. The civic body has divided the Old Panvel city into two zones for water supply.

In 2018, 2017 and 2016, the PMC was faced with a similar situation when the monsoon failed and it had to resort to supplying water on alternate days. However, despite the good rainfall last year, the problem has resurfaced.

At present, the civic body needs around 30 MLD of water daily to supply a population of around 1.5 lakh in Old Panvel.

Deputy Engineer Vilas Chavan of the PMC’s water supply department said the civic body meets the requirement of 30 MLD water needs from three sources. “The civic body gets water from Taloja Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), Maharashtra Jal Pradhikaran (MJP), and the Dehrang dam to meet the requirement of citizens,” said Chavan. While MIDC Taloja gets water from the Kasadi river near Panvel, the MJP draws water from the Patalganga river, which originates in the Khandala portion of the Sahaydri scarp.

However, this year, water supply from both the MIDC and the MJP was interrupted and hence, the civic body withdrew excess water from the Dehrang dam to meet the city’s demand. “Water supply from the MIDC and the MJP was also impacted because of power failure and damage to the old pipelines,” said Chavan. “Given this scenario, the civic body had to withdraw excess water from the Dehrag dam, leading to early depletion. Now, the civic body has divided the city into two zones. In zone one, areas that will be covered are Patel Mohalla, New Service Houd, Gangaram Talkies and Market Yard. Similarly, under zone two, areas that will be covered are the Old Service Houd, Hari Om Nagar, Thane Naka, and Bhaji Market. One day zone one will get water and the next day, zone two and the process will be repeated till the monsoon arrives,” Chavan explained.