PUNE: The civic body initiated water release into the
Mutha right bank canal on Sunday evening to strengthen supply to the eastern parts of the city.
Residents of areas like
Ahmednagar Road,
Hadapsar, Kondhwa and Mundhwa have been suffering from a severe water crisis for the last three days.
“The water is expected to reach Cantonment water works late on Sunday night. There, it will undergo a purification process and will be available for pumping on Monday morning. The water will be then supplied to residential areas. With this, we are hoping to streamline water supply to the eastern parts of Pune,” an official from PMC’s water supply department said.
Parvati water works is 6km away from the Cantonment facility.
The decision to release water was taken after the repair and construction work of the retaining wall — near the breach — had neared completion. The work had begun on Thursday after a 15m portion of the wall in the Janata Vasahat area collapsed, causing heavy floods in the Dandekar bridge area and slum pockets. The
irrigation department had immediately stopped water release into the canal.
V G Kulkarni, head of PMC’s water supply department, said water was released at the rate of 50 cusecs from 5pm on Sunday. “There is little scope for the released water to hamper the ongoing repair work. Checks were conducted on Sunday. The water release will continue for a few days,” he said.
On Saturday, the PMC has attempted to release water into the canal. However, it was stopped after officials had noticed that the water hampered repair work. The released water was diverted into a nullah to avoid any damage to the repaired portion.
However, the diversion had sparked panic among locals, who had seen the increased flow of water.
Cantonment water works gets about 350 MLD of water daily through pipeline and canal. However, since the canal’s closure, the supply had dropped to 200-250 MLD, causing water shortage in many parts of the city.
Meanwhile, officials in the state irrigation department on Sunday said barring cementing of the upper portion of the breached portion of the wall, most of the work pertaining to the foundation and the first-layer reconstruction was completed by Sunday evening.
“We continued the repair works through the night. The construction of the wall at the breached portion will be finished by Monday. This wall will require the support of soil. We have started the deposition of soil from Sunday, and continue this through Monday,” a senior official from the irrigation department said on Sunday.
Many housing societies in Ahmednagar Road and Hadapsar continued to face a water shortage on Sunday. Water tankers failed to meet the needs, even as taps ran dry. The civic administration faced difficulty in meeting the huge demand with its limited fleet.
