The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) effort to improve the purity and quality of drinking water available to Mumbaikars have been successful.
As the BMC has received the national award for water purity 2019-20 by the Indian Water Works Association (IWWA). The award called the Jal Nirmalta Award is given annually to local self-governing bodies for improving water quality through technology, efficient administration and high-quality management in the field of water supply to the citizens.
According to the civic body, drinking water in Mumbai is now 99.34 per cent pure and that the water department in the Greater Mumbai region has undergone radical changes and improvements over the last few years through modern technology.
Deputy Commissioner (Special Engineering) Ajay Rathore accepted this award at a special function in Hyderabad recently.
According to reports, officials said that water samples supplied to the citizens in 21 cities of the country were collected by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs under the Prime Minister’s Water Life Mission Program and tested for 47 different standards of water as per IS 10500: 2012.
In Mumbai, water samples were collected from areas like Worli, Currey Road, Sewree, Malad, Kandivali and Jogeshwari. Moreover, water samples were also collected from slums in Powai, Sakinaka, Ghatkopar and Chembur in the eastern suburbs. All the samples were found to be suitable and passed 47 standards.
The Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation supplies 3,850 million litres of water to the citizens every day.
The water department has identified 358 locations in the service reservoir and water distribution system for collecting water samples.
Of these, water samples are collected daily from 110 to 130 places by the Department of Health and Quality Control (Water Works) and tested in the laboratory with the latest and most accurate technology called 'Membrane Filter Technique' (MFT) as per the standards of the World Health Organization.
In December 2020, the testing laboratory at Dadar has also been nominated by the National Board of Laboratories (NABL).
During the period from 2013-14 to 2019-20, the Mumbai Municipal Corporation has replaced the old dilapidated 250 km long water pipes of various diameters. Many have also been replaced.
Due to various measures taken by the Department of Water Engineering in the last five years, the quality and purity of water has increased to 99.34 per cent in the year 2019-20, said an official.
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