Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis assured the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday that Mumbai would have an equal water distribution system. City MLAs had complained about discrimination in water distribution and erratic timings in different parts of the city. The CM said that he would appoint a committee of water experts that would chalk up a road map of equal water distribution in two months’ time.
“A committee of experts will be appointed to chalk out a road map in two months’ time. About 27 per cent of water gets lost due to theft, illegal connections and faulty systems. The BMC is trying to reduce the losses and change age-old water pipes,” he said.
The city has a population of 130 lakh people and gets 3,750 million litres per day. However, low rainfall last year led to the water cuts, the CM said. The residents in the slums get one third of water supply than the people staying in buildings. The water connections and supply lines in the city are very old, which leads to water loss. Even the chawls have no water meters to ascertain water used per day, he added.
“The BMC is conducting a survey of the water pipelines, consumers and trying to introduce GIS mapping, network modelling, losses control device, quality checks, among others,” the CM said.
The issue about the water woes in the city was raised by MLAs Yogesh Sagar, Atul Bhatkhalkar and Manisha Choudhary. They had said the city gets unequal water and there is need to distribute it as per population. They pointed out that after water cuts, Mumbai city, with a 31-lakh population, gets supply of 960 to 975 million litres, eastern suburbs with 30 lakh population gets supply of 920 to 930 million litres while the western suburbs with 55-lakh population gets only 620 million litres.
