Water Supply in parts of Mumbai still not restored completely?

Mumbai

On Thursday evening residents of Kandivali, Andheri (East and west), Jogeshwari and Vile Parle were in for a rude shock! Their water supply was cut unexpectedly and there was no intimation in regards to when this water supply will be restored.

It was later revealed that the water supply was cut because the water pipe that was accidentally damaged by the contractors of Metro 6. The pipeline was situated under Jogeshwari-Vikhroli Link Road and took some time to repair. BMC had assured that people will start getting regular water supply from Sunday midnight.

The repair work was complicated as the pipeline was about 40ft below the ground level and BMC has been blowing its own trumpet on how they have managed to get the work done. While people have been all praises for the work done but there are few issues that have also been pointed out.

The first glaring issue is that how the pipeline could be damaged in the first place. There are many fingers being pointed at the contractor and how we has careless in executing the work of Mumbai Metro.

There is a big blame game happening between Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) regarding who is at fault here. There are also reports that claim that the map provided by the BMC was a faulty one. As per the map 1,800 mm diameter pipeline was supposed to be on the right side of JVLR while the Metro work was being done on the left side.

There are others who point out that the timely updates regarding when the water supply will be restored were not shared. Since the issue was stretched over so many days, even the tankers were in short supply and people had to stand in queues to get mineral water for drinking.

As a matter of fact, it has been almost a week and the water supply is still not back to normal in some places in Andheri and adjoining areas. People that we spoke to shared either complained of low pressure or said that they were only getting water for a very limited period of time.

We hope that the authorities do something soon regarding the water issue and also take necessary steps to make sure that an error of this nature does not occur again.