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This is an archive article published on July 1, 2014

First time in Pimpri’s history, once-a-day water supply to take effect

Over 20 years ago, entire Pimpri-Chinchwad used to get round the clock water.

The PCMC has been forced to take the step as the water level in Pavana dam has sunk to a ‘historic low’. ( Express photo by:Rajesh Stephen ) The PCMC has been forced to take the step as the water level in Pavana dam has sunk to a ‘historic low’. ( Express photo by: Rajesh Stephen )

Around 18 lakh residents in Pimpri-Chinchwad will have to brace for once-a-day water supply from this week–a move which will be first of its kind since the municipal corporation came into being 30 years ago. The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will take a decision to bring about the water cut at a meeting on Tuesday.

“A meeting of officials and corporators will be held on Tuesday to decide the water cut,” said city engineer Mahavir Kamble. The Rajiv Jadhav administration had already decided last week to effect the water cut, but wanted the corporators to be informed before they approved the move.

The PCMC has been forced to take the step as the water level in Pavana dam, which caters to the water needs of the industrial town, has sunk to what officials describe as a historic low. Pavana dam which is located in Maval area, where this time of the season it rains heavily, has had a dry spell like the rest of the country.

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“As of June 30, the storage in Pavana dam is 16.6 per cent of its total capacity,” said Kamble. Once the water cuts take effect, water will be available for only two to three hours a day to the entire town, officials said.

PCMC officials said the current storage level is the lowest Pavana has reached in its history. “On June 20, last year, Pavana dam had around 39 per cent storage. This year, it had around 19 per cent storage,” said Kamble.

Civic officials and former corporators said if the dam has sunk to a historic low, another historic event will be created if PCMC starts supplying water once a day. “I don’t recall, in the last 20-25 years, that a situation such as this has emerged due to lack of monsoon urging the PCMC to supply water once a day ,” said former PCMC corporator Eknath Mote.

Over 20 years ago, entire Pimpri-Chinchwad used to get round the clock water.

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However, over the years, as population increased, new areas came up and buildings expanded horizontally and rose vertically, and water shortages began to be felt. From 24 hours, the supply reduced to ten hours, then eight hours and finally six hours. On an experimental basis, PCMC has implemented a round the clock water supply scheme in Yamunanagar area. “This will stop.Yamunanagar will also get 2-3 hours supply once the cut takes effect,” said officials.

Manoj More has been working with the Indian Express since 1992. For the first 16 years, he worked on the desk, edited stories, made pages, wrote special stories and handled The Indian Express edition. In 31 years of his career, he has regularly written stories on a range of topics, primarily on civic issues like state of roads, choked drains, garbage problems, inadequate transport facilities and the like. He has also written aggressively on local gondaism. He has primarily written civic stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad, Khadki, Maval and some parts of Pune. He has also covered stories from Kolhapur, Satara, Solapur, Sangli, Ahmednagar and Latur. He has had maximum impact stories from Pimpri-Chinchwad industrial city which he has covered extensively for the last three decades.   Manoj More has written over 20,000 stories. 10,000 of which are byline stories. Most of the stories pertain to civic issues and political ones. The biggest achievement of his career is getting a nearly two kilometre road done on Pune-Mumbai highway in Khadki in 2006. He wrote stories on the state of roads since 1997. In 10 years, nearly 200 two-wheeler riders had died in accidents due to the pathetic state of the road. The local cantonment board could not get the road redone as it lacked funds. The then PMC commissioner Pravin Pardeshi took the initiative, went out of his way and made the Khadki road by spending Rs 23 crore from JNNURM Funds. In the next 10 years after the road was made by the PMC, less than 10 citizens had died, effectively saving more than 100 lives. Manoj More's campaign against tree cutting on Pune-Mumbai highway in 1999 and Pune-Nashik highway in 2004 saved 2000 trees. During Covid, over 50 doctors were  asked to pay Rs 30 lakh each for getting a job with PCMC. The PCMC administration alerted Manoj More who did a story on the subject, asking then corporators how much money they demanded....The story worked as doctors got the job without paying a single paisa. Manoj More has also covered the "Latur drought" situation in 2015 when a "Latur water train" created quite a buzz in Maharashtra. He also covered the Malin tragedy where over 150 villagers had died.     Manoj More is on Facebook with 4.9k followers (Manoj More), on twitter manojmore91982 ... Read More


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