Mumbai : Against the backdrop of depleting water reserves in lakes that supply water to Mumbai, the Municipal Corporation
BMC, MCGM cuts off nearly 10,000 illegal water connections |
of Greater Mumbai conducted a special drive against unauthorised water connections last month, and tackled 2004 such connections in just 15 days.
The civic body identified 484 unauthorised connections in the city, 786 in the Western suburbs and 784 in the eastern suburbs. Besides, between January and February this year, the MCGM identified 7,926 unauthorised connections, of which it cut off 7,644 connections and regularised 282 of them.
While Mumbaikars have been facing a 20 per cent water cut since last monsoon, the city’s seven lakes have water to suffice for another 120 days. However, this figure is being stated as of Tuesday even though the civic body had confirmed in an earlier news article carried by The Free Press Journal that the Bhatsa system, that supplies water to parts of the city and its eastern suburbs, has only 95 days of water left, and the Vaitarna system that supplies water to the western suburbs has 111 days of reserves left, as of March 18.
Even as water levels depleted, civic body conducted a special drive and cut off thousands of illegal connections
Meanwhile, the civic body identified areas that are short on water supply, in 16 wards, and has taken administrative measures to deal with the situation. For example, it has dealt with shortage in water supply in G/North and G/South ward, by increasing the water pressure, and the civic body took help from local police in the L ward to deal with illegal water connections that were leading to shortage of water.
A senior civic official said, “The process of identifying leakages and illegal connections is a continuous process, but this special drive helped us speed it up considerably.”
