Pune: Robot Detects Water Theft In Vadgaon Sheri; 40 Illegal Connections Exposed

Pune: A large-scale water theft has come to light in Ganesh Nagar, Vadgaon Sheri, after a robot deployed to detect leakage in an 18-inch main water pipeline while inspecting for the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) instead uncovered 40 illegal water connections.

For the past several days, residents of the Ganesh Nagar area had been complaining about extremely low water pressure and irregular supply. Acting on these complaints, the Bundgarden Water Supply Department initiated an inspection and released a robot equipped with high-resolution cameras into the main water pipeline to detect leakage.

However, just 10 meters into the pipeline, the robot detected something -- direct illegal taps were connected to the main water line. Further inspection confirmed that as many as 40 unauthorised connections had been installed in the area.

PMC officials confirmed that it does not provide direct connections to the main water channel, which raised serious concerns over how such a large number of illegal connections were installed without detection.

Pune is currently implementing the ‘Uniform Water Supply Scheme’ to streamline water distribution across the city. Yet, the condition of old pipelines and widespread leakage remains a major challenge. At present, water leakage in the city is estimated at 33-35 per cent, much higher than the ideal benchmark of 15 per cent. This results in the wastage of lakhs of litres of water daily.

The city has around 3 lakh authorised water connections, including 40,000 commercial. Domestic water charges are included in the property tax. Despite this, low water pressure complaints continue in several areas.

Superintendent Engineer of PMC’s Water Supply Department, Prasanna Raghad Joshi, stated, “After receiving complaints of low water flow, a robot was introduced into the water main for inspection. It was found that illegal taps were diverted directly from the main pipeline. A thorough investigation will be carried out to determine the authenticity of these connections.”

A major concern highlighted by the incident is PMC’s lack of an independent mechanism to monitor water theft. Reports suggest that in many parts of the city, unauthorised connections are facilitated by valve operators or private individuals. While the PMC disconnected around 1,500 illegal connections last year, citizens allege that the actual number of unauthorised connections across Pune runs into several thousands.