An acute shortage of water in most parts of the twin-city is heating up the political arena in the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).
However, this time around it is not the opposition parties but the BJP rulers who are up in arms. They have threatened to launch an agitation to register their protest against the inaction and step-motherly treatment by the Sena-led state government authorities which were responsible for the acute water crisis in the twin-city.
BJP leaders including deputy mayor- Hasmukh Gehlot, house leader- Prashant Dalvi and former standing committee chairperson- Dhruvkishor Patil held a conference in the press room located in the main administrative building of the civic body on Thursday. The leaders informed that they had given a ten-day ultimatum to the administration for resolving the issue failing which the BJP will launch a protest agitation from 12 April onwards.
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 below 180 MLD owing to a 24-hour supply suspension every fortnight which has been imposed in the Thane district.
Moreover, the quantum of water supplied by MIDC is said to be restricted to not more than 95 MLD. This in addition to leakages, unaccounted supply and theft further aggravates the water woes of the region. Consequently, the frequency of water supply continues to be limited at once in 60 to 65 hours.
“We have been constantly following up on the issue for the past ten months, but the situation instead of improving has gone bad to worse, leaving us with no other option but to agitate for the people,” said Gehlot.
Assurances were given to solve in the crisis within a month in a meeting chaired by industries minister-Subhash Desai in December 2020. With no self-sustained resources of water supply like other civic bodies, the twin-city also faces a demographical dilemma as it falls in the tail-end of the district, which extends the 24-hour water cut to an additional six to eight hours owing to low pressure.
