BMC issues notices to owners of ring-wells, borewells: Shut them or obtain NOC

Earlier in 2023, a similar move of the civic body triggered a man-made water crisis with members of the Mumbai Water Tankers Association (MWTA) going on a flash strike — crippling the entire city of Mumbai.

The notices that were served by the pest control officers of the BMC’s ward offices to the owners of ring-wells directs them to stop supplying water to water tankers. Some letters also stated that these wells are acting as breeding hotspots for mosquitoes.

In one such letter issued to a well owner by BMC’s A ward (Colaba, Nariman Point, Navy Nagar) ward, the pest control officer said, “Within seven days the owner has to dismantle all the pipes and fittings associated with the ring-well and fill up with good earth up to the surrounding ground level so that there’s no depression likely to hold water and mosquitoes there.”

Another letter sent by the pest control officer from BMC’s K/East (Andheri East) ward to a well owner read, “The well in the given address is being used for supplying groundwater to the tankers. This activity is an infringement and you are hereby directed to immediately stop supply of water to private tankers from the said well failing to which permission for maintaining the well will be revoked and legislative action will be initiated.”

The notices also mandated the owners to apply for a fresh licence to the CGWA in order to qualify as water supplying agencies.

Meanwhile, members of the MWTA have said that this is an approach towards jeopardising the business of tankers in Mumbai.

“The CGWA rules are valid for potable water only, but in Mumbai, we only supply non-potable water from our tankers that are used for commercial and industrial purposes. In 2023, we had told the administration that certain guidelines of the CGWA don’t stand applicable in Mumbai, yet they are enforcing it on us,” Ankur Sharma, spokesperson of MWTA told The Indian Express on Friday.

According to the CGWA guidelines a licence would be issued to a well owner only if the well is situated on a land parcel having a minimum size of 200 sqm. Besides this, the guideline also limits the number of tankers that can fill water from a well to a single tanker. Besides this, the new guidelines also mandate that every well operator needs to set up a flow meter for recording the flow of water.

“For a city as densely populated as Mumbai it is impossible to have a land parcel that is 200 sqm in size. In addition to this, there is no supplier of the flow meter in Mumbai that is mandated in the guideline. At present, Mumbai is witnessing infrastructure projects like metro rail, coastal road, road concretising and bullet train and all of them are dependent on tanker waters. Besides this our water is supplied to railways for cleaning the trains, banquet halls and in other commercial entities as well. Therefore, if the authorities stop us from extracting water from the wells, the entire city will take a hit,” Sharma said.

Meanwhile, when contacted a civic official said, “There are many societies where well water is being supplied through tankers. These societies use the water for potable purposes. Even though they (MWTA) maintain that they supply only non-potable water, then why do they take up orders from housing societies? For these specific conditions new licences needed to be CGWA following due process.”

In 2023, after the civic authorities issued similar notices, the MWTA went on a flash strike for five days that hit Mumbai’s non potable water by a large margin. At present there are 1,800 tankers registered under MWTA which supply upto 200 MLD to 2,000 MLD water every day depending on the demand.