Leena Lobo, a resident of Mount Mary in Bandra (West), has had to readjust her entire day’s schedule around the BMC’s water supply schedule - the hilly part of the suburbs gets piped water between 9.30 pm and 1.30 am - with water just trickling from the taps. The mother of two said she can only put her children to bed post 1.30am now, “once I have filled enough water for the next day”. “Earlier, the water tank would fill within one hour, over past few weeks the process has become arduous as water just trickles from the taps. Now I have to fill buckets and drums, as the water pressure is almost zero,” she told The Indian Express. Since November last year, the BMC has cut water supply quantity by 10 per cent and supply duration by 15 per cent to ensure that water in the city’s lakes lasts till the monsoon. Following the cuts, parts of Mumbai, especially Bandra, Andheri West, Ghatkopar and Byculla, are facing crisis with water supply restricted to few hours in some areas in the peak of summer. A kilometre from Mount Mary, at Pimpleshwarwadi in Bandra, Mamta Dhuri said the situation was worse in slums. “Here five families are assigned one tap. Sometimes we have to wait for hours to get a pailful.” Water is supplied to Pimpleshwarwadi from 4.30 pm to 7.30 pm. However, residents here claim water reaches the taps in the area only around 7pm. With complaints flowing in from across the city, corporators in the civic body’s standing committee have now alleged that the actual cut in supply was higher than what the civic body was claiming. Samajwadi Party leader Rais Shaikh said, “I have been following up on complaints from Sankli street in Byculla, where water supply is erratic. However, the BMC is hiding behind water cut.” Sankli Street is home to at least 20 buildings, which have no fixed water supply timings. Water stock in the seven lakes, which supply water to Mumbai, was recorded at 17.86 per cent of their total capacity of 14.47 lakh million litres earlier this week. As of now city has approximately just over two months of water stock left, officials said. Meanwhile, the state government recently has approved the BMC’s request to use the reserve water stock of 1.70 lakh million litres of water, if the condition deteriorates post May. The BMC normally can use the reserve water stock only post June 15. Bhatsa lake, which has the reserve water supply of 2.24 lakh million litres, also supplies water to neighbouring cities of Thane and Bhiwandi. Mumbai gets water from Vihar, Tulsi, Bhatsa, Middle Vaitarna, Upper Vaitarna, Tansa and Modak Sagar, which are in Thane and Nashik districts. The city requires 4,200 million litres of water daily (MLD), of which the BMC supplies 3,800 MLD. The water stock this year, is lowest recorded in the last three years.
