The ruling BJP of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) is gearing up to launch a massive agitation to protest against the government's step-motherly treatment towards them, which has led to a huge water crisis in the twin-city from the past few months.
Two consecutive shut downs by one of the providers i.e. Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and Shahad Temghar- (STEM) followed by an equal number of major pipe bursts had led to an acute shortage of water in the twin-city.
The water scarcity triggered a blame game between the BJP and Shiv-Sena followed by a series of agitations by local political parties, which have continued despite the fact that the water supply has limped back to normalcy.
On the other hand, the civic administration led by commissioner Dilip Dhole has rolled up its sleeves to ensure uninterrupted water supply ahead of the festive season.
In a joint meeting held with MIDC and STEM officials, the commissioner urged both the providers to refrain from imposing any type of shutdowns and repair any technical snags on an immediate basis.
Apart from installing independent feeders to facilitate power supply for pumping water during outages, the MBMC has also decided to conduct a third party water audit to plug in-transit leakages and thefts. As against the requirement of over 225 MLD, the twin-city has an allotted supply of 211 MLD provided jointly by the MIDC (125 MLD) and STEM (86 MLD) water supply authority. However, the actual supply hovers around below 200 MLD as the civic administration still loses a huge quantity of potable water in transit on a daily basis owing to leakages, unaccounted supply and theft.
The audit will not only weed out illegal connections, but also expose commercial exploitation of water by establishments under the guise of residential use. At present, the loss in the water supply system is much higher than the permissible limit.
