Navi Mumbai: Water Crisis Looms Over Uran As Ransai Dam Reaches Unusable Content Level

Navi Mumbai: A major water crisis is looming over Uran that houses major public oil companies and Defence establishments. The water level of Ransai Dam, located in Dighode village in Uran can supply water for the next four to five days as its level has depleted sharply.

Uran is likely to face a difficult situation if there is a delay in the arrival of monsoon by a week, according to an Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) engineer. The Ransai Dam was built by MIDC around 50 years ago and it is the prime source of water for 25 Gram Panchayats, Uran Municipal Council, JNPT township, ONGC, BPCL colonies, and government establishments like Defence among others.

Significant drop in water levels

As per the official from the MIDC the water available in the dam can only meet the requirement till June 15. Thereafter there will be unusable content in the dam. The majority of the water of the dam goes to government establishments in Uran.

At present, the area is facing a three-day water cut . “There is no water supply for two days in urban areas and one day in rural areas to tide over the problem,” said an engineer from MIDC. “We have appealed to citizens to use water sparingly without wasting water,” said an engineer from MIDC. At present, the daily water requirement for Uran taluka stands at 35 MLD.

According to an official from MIDC, they have requested 10 MLD water from CIDCO; but are getting only 5 MLD daily. “Due to the low water levels, residents of Uran have been facing a water shortage since January,” said a resident. 

The situation in other parts of Navi Mumbai is almost similar. NMMC has already imposed a half-day water cut once a week in every ward. It saves around 25 MLD water per day.

The water supply will resume on June 11

In the last one week, both NMMC and CIDCO's shutdown of the water treatment plant severely impacted the residents as they had to depend on water tankers the demand for which saw a sudden rise. Furthermore, Netra Kiran Patil, a former corporator from Kharghar alleged that several parts of Kharghar are getting inadequate and contaminated water.

Meanwhile, on June 10, the main pipeline that supplies water from Morbe dam to the NMMC area burst near Adai village and water supply was stopped across the NMMC area. In addition, the water supply was also impacted in Kamothe and a 20 percent water cut was imposed in the Kharghar node. The water supply will resume on June 11 with low pressure.