65% Nagpur struggles with alternate day, low pressure water supply

NAGPUR: People living in 65% areas of the city are complaining of inadequate and low pressure water supply since Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) started alternate day water supply five days ago.
From January 6, NMC had started alternate day water supply in areas coming under Laxmi Nagar, Dharampeth, Hanuman Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Gandhibagh, Mangalwari and parts of Satranjipura and Ashi Nagar zones for 30 days.This was done to take up repair works at five leakages in 2,300mm diameter pipeline between Itgaon and Karambhad.
The NMC supplies water to Nagpur city through two sources — Pench reservoir (480 MLD water per day) and Kanhan (200 MLD) river. The affected areas are receiving water from Pench.
After the alternate day water supply was implemented, on the first couple of days citizens of these zones managed but now they have started complaining. NMC had said people will get adequate water supply and under good pressure after the introduction of alternate day water supply. But not only residents, even elected representatives now say this claim is proving to be false.
Independent corporator from Central Nagpur Abha Pande said the civic body has actually not planned properly before taking up the work.
The residents of Satranjipura zone, which too gets water from Pench reservoir, is badly hit due to alternate day water supply. Pande said on Sunday a morcha of residents from her prabhag in Itwari gheraoed her for low pressure water supply.
“We received low pressure water supply on Saturday. So, we were not able to store sufficient water for Sunday. We will have to use the stored water sparingly, so that it suffices till Monday morning, when we will get water again,” aggrieved residents informed the corporator.
Various other areas in west Nagpur too received inadequate and low water supply on Sunday. Some of the affected areas are Zingabai Takli, Dabha and Friends Colony.
Asmita Bhatt, a resident of Govind City, pointed out that they are not against repair works or alternate day water supply. But the low pressure water and reduction in supply of water timing has increased the problem further.
“There are 100 flats in our society. Earlier we used to get almost four hours of water, which was sufficient for the four towers in the society. But now we are getting water for only one and a half-hour, which is insufficient for such a large society, where no other water arrangements are possible,” she said.
Rahul Sahare, resident of a flat scheme in Laxmi Nagar, too complained about low water pressure. “It has forced us to depend more on well water. As a result, the groundwater levels are expected to fall in a few days due to over-usage. This means in the future, we may have to depend on water tankers,” he pointed out.
During the month-long period, NMC is not pumping water from Pench reservoir and instead supplying water to the city through a 48km canal from Navegaon Khairi to Mahadula. The condition of the canal is not satisfactory due to breaches at several places. NMC is lifting around 450 MLD water through the canal and leaks are leading to a lot of water going waste, admitted water works committee chairman Vijay Zalke.
NMC kick-starts repair works
Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation appointed private firm — SEW — for repair and maintenance works of 2,300mm diameter pipeline supplying 480 MLD water from Pench reservoir has started works of plugging leakages. “The firm has detected two leakages and started the work,” said a senior official from NMC’s water works department.
Over a year ago, the civic body had detected the leakages, but NMC ignored it. These leakages were causing loss of almost 5 MLD water every day.
“We have detected two huge leakages in the 2,300mm diameter pipeline at Itgaon, where repair works have already started,” said the official. “The work to dig and reach the pipeline at three other places has also started. Soon their works too will be done on war footing,” he said.
Along with this, NMC has also undertaken work of installing flow meters at seven places. The flow meters will help NMC know exact losses of water.
The cost of the project by NMC to install seven flow meters is Rs2.03 crore. Of which, three meters will be installed at Mahadula, one at Itgaon, two at Gorewada treatment plant and one at Navegaon Khairi. Of them, the work to install three flow meters — two at Gorewada treatment plant and one at Itgaon — has been completed. Rest too will be done soon, the official claimed.