Strike by water tanker body: Supply to major hotels, two posh clubs hit

The MWTA is an umbrella association of private water tanker owners and drivers in Mumbai that supply water regularly to parts of the city which doesn't have a functional water supply pipeline operated by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The MWTA strike has been ongoing from February 9 and members said this is an indefinite strike. (Representational/File)

3 min readMumbaiFeb 13, 2023 05:12 AM IST First published on: Feb 13, 2023 at 05:12 AM IST

Owing to a strike organised by the Mumbai Water Tanker Association (MWTA), water supply to several commercial establishments, including major private hotels and two posh South Mumbai clubs, were affected on Sunday.

The MWTA is an umbrella association of private water tanker owners and drivers in Mumbai that supply water regularly to parts of the city which doesn’t have a functional water supply pipeline operated by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The MWTA strike has been ongoing from February 9 and members said this is an indefinite strike. They also said that various infrastructure projects in Mumbai including Metro works have also been affected. Ankur Sharma, spokesperson of the association, said that in 2020 the the Jal Shakti ministry issued a guideline stating that private tanker owners need to own a private land parcel of 2,000 sqft for drawing underground water. The latest guidelines also state that the tanker owners and suppliers will have to pay Rs 6,50,000 to the local administration as security deposit. The guidelines also state that not more than five tankers can draw water from a specific point.

“During the previous MVA government, we were not facing any problem, however after the new government took over, these guidelines were enforced against us starting February 3. We are now being told to abide by the said norms or our licenses would be revoked,” Sharma said. He said that on a regular basis, the private tankers supply 3,500 million liters of water per day across all the 24 municipal wards in Mumbai. Almost all the construction sites for various real estate projects like the Mumbai Coastal Road and Mumbai Metro Rail along with several hotels and private clubs get water from these tankers, since there is no regular pipeline available for water supply.

“It is impossible for us to buy a 2,000 sqft land in Mumbai, which would cost not less than Rs 10 crore. These guidelines are absolutely impractical and needs to be revised soon,” Sharma said. The latest circular issued on February 3 this month, meanwhile states that in case of a person not complying with it, the police can impose Section 379 (Punishment for theft), 426 (Punishment for mischief), 430 (Mischief by injury to works of irrigation or by wrongfully diverting water) of the Indian Penal Code against them.

Meanwhile, two prominent clubs of South Mumbai including The Garware club house and The Cricket Club of India (CCI) in a notice sent to its members informed them that due to ongoing strike of the water tanker association, the services in the clubs including the swimming pools will be shut.

Nikhil Desai, a King Circle resident who had a reservation in Garware Club on Sunday, said, “We had a marriage in our family for which the Garware Club was reserved. When we reached the venue on Sunday morning, we saw a notice that water supply has been affected due to the strike. We were told that the club has stock water for running Sunday’s event but the problem will start from Monday, after the entire stock runs out since there is no back up of water available anymore,” Desai said.

Pratip Acharya

Pratip Acharya is a seasoned journalist based in Mumbai reporting for The Indian Express Read More