Poor rainfall,water-cuts may stay

Considering the uncertainty of rains and the unavailibility of water,the water supply department of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has requested the Irrigation Department to reserve water till August end instead of July 15 which is the usual case. The chief of water supply department hinted that water cuts will continue for a sustained period if water is to be reserved in the dams for the year,and nothing much is being done against the 40 per cent transmission losses.

Like in the past couple of years,the absence of rains had made things difficult for the city till mid-July this year and forcing the civic body to impose water cut. “The pattern of rain in the city has changed over the past couple of years. Due to erratic rainfall,the city is left with less water in summer. The four dams around Pune have a capacity of 29 TMC water,” said Pramod Nirbhavne,chief of the water supply department.

“Therefore,in the last week of July,we requested the irrigation department to keep the water in store till August end. Further meetings are scheduled to discuss this issue,” he said.

“In order to keep more water in store till next August,we have to keep the water cut in effect on a sustained basis. That is one of the ways to make people use water in a judicious way. We are trying for equal distribution of water to all and for that,we are thinking about bringing in meter system,” said Nirbhavne.

An irrigation department official said,“The dams around Pune are now about 60% full and in case there is no more rainfall this year,we have to plan the distribution of current storage.”