Journalism of Courage
After water storage in the four dams supplying water to Pune increased to over 7 TMC, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has decided to continue its normal supply till July 26, officials said Sunday.
Earlier, the PMC had said it will start an alternate day water supply from July 4 to July 11 due to the deficit rain in June, which brought down the water storage to 2.5 TMC in the dams. However, the civic body restored normal supply from July 8 citing Ashadi Ekadashi and Bakri Eid celebrations on Sunday.
“The situation has been reviewed and considering the available quantity of water in the dams, the water supply will be normal till July 26,” said Annirudha Pawaskar, Chief Engineer and in-charge of the PMC’s water supply department. Any further decision about water management would be taken on July 26 after reviewing the situation, said officials.
The PMC was under criticism after many localities and housing societies in the city did not receive water for two consecutive days following the supply cut on July 4.
The civic body had to go for a 30 per cent water cut by declaring an alternate day water supply after the state water resource department raised an alert about decreasing water storage in the dams supplying water to the city due to a deficit in rainfall. The water storage had decreased to 2.5 TMC in the past week.
The city as well as catchment areas of Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon and Temghar dams started receiving rainfall in the past few days. The water storage has increased to 8 TMC.
The India Meteorological Development (IMD) has also issued warnings of heavy to very heavy rainfall in the Pune district and the rain is likely to further increase the water storage in the four dams.
The PMC draws as much as 1,650 MLD but reduced it to 1,200 to implement a water cut.
