Pune: 50% rise in demand for water tankers this April

PUNE: Disrupted water supply and a scorching summer have contributed to a 50% rise in the demand for water tankers this April as against the corresponding month, last year.
A total of 27,000 trips of tankers were recorded between April 1 and 30, this year, as against the 18,000 trips recorded in April 2018.

Civic officials said, on an average, 400 to 450 trips are carried out per day by the tankers, nearly double in April.The demand for water from citizens has gone up across the city. This time, even the core areas, which are usually flush with water, opted for the services. Normally, tanker water is high in demand from the fringe areas.
“The civic body and private operators provide water through tankers. It is available throughout the year, but demands go up in summer,” Pravin Gedam, superintending engineer of PMC’s water department, said.
The civic body charges Rs 800 per tanker, but private suppliers take between Rs 1,000 and Rs 2,000 per tanker.
“This year, the demand has shot up due to poor storage in the dams and water cuts which are carried out every Thursday. Big societies across the city are demanding more tankers,” a senior civic official said.
The drought-like situation in the other parts of the state too has led to migration to the city, adding to the floating population and thus increasing the overall demand for tanker water.
The PMC hires tankers every summer through a tender system. Political leaders and party workers are involved in the business of supplying water through tankers.
Civic activists had raised questions about the monitoring of tankers and the price for the service from these distribution centres. The CCTV cameras at these places were either non-functional or found to be broken and the display boards of these CCTVs were misplaced.
“Many tanker owners are exploiting the situation. They charge exorbitant sums. There are no checks and balances on the money spent on the tanker service,” Vivek Velankar of Sajag Nagrik Manch, a citizens group, said.
The civic administration must create awareness about how much a tanker of water costs as citizens should not end up paying a high price for the water. It is the civic body’s responsibility to provide water if there are any shortfalls in the supply system, other activists said.
Some fringe areas struggle for water throughout the years , summer only make it worse. The civic body permits private tankers to fill up at one of the designated points and earns lakhs of rupees every month, but these operators sell the water at a much higher rate and rake in high profits.
Tankers criss cross the city at all hours of the day and the night. Some societies in the fringe areas run up bills over Rs 10 lakh per month, a burden that falls on the residents.