Residents of four wards brace for dry days as BMC cuts water supply

BMC shuts supply for repair work at the Malad Hill Reservoir

The water cut will affect slum dwellers more than people who live in apartments.

With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) set to carry out improvement and repair works at the Malad Hill Reservoir, the western suburbs of the city will have to endure a complete water cut on Thursday and Friday.

Residents from areas in P South, P North, R South and C Central wards will be affected due to the repair works. These include Goregaon (East and West), Malad (East and West), Kandivali (East and West) and Borivali (West).

“The BMC has taken up the work of cross connection of 2,400 mm water main with 1,500 mm water main at Malad Hill Reservoir from Thursday to Friday midnight. The repair and connection work is complex so we require a complete day to execute it. This is being done to improve water supply in the city,” Sanjay R. Arte, deputy head of Hydraulic Engineers Department (western suburbs), said. After completion of the work, the tunnel will be recharged and water supply will be restored to the areas. The BMC has requested the affected citizens to cooperate with them, store water on the previous day and use it cautiously.

“The BMC already provide us with limited water every day. The water cut will create problem for the people of our chawl but we will have to manage. I have a family of six members and we do not have big containers to store water,” Vijay Godekay (23), a resident of Vimladevi Chawl, Poisar, Kandivali (East), said.

The water cut will affect slum dwellers more than people who live in apartments. “We have a storage tank constructed in our society so we will only have to store drinking water for a day. We can even buy mineral water bottles if the stored water would not be sufficient,” Ashwina Bramhe, a resident of Piramal Nagar, Goregaon (West), said.

Shobha Ogadiya, 30, a resident of Saibaba Reh Vaasi Sang, Kandivali (West), said people from her chawl will have to call a water tanker collectively because the water which they are provided on a daily basis is not sufficient as compared to their requirements even for a single day.

Just last week, the BMC withdrew the 10% water cut imposed across the city.