Bucketful of woes in city

PUNE, Feb 25: Life came to a standstill for residents of the old city, Duttawadi, Lokmanyanagar and Shivajinagar who not only had to cope...

PUNE, Feb 25: Life came to a standstill for residents of the old city, Duttawadi, Lokmanyanagar and Shivajinagar who not only had to cope with yesterday’s water closure, but were forced to face a virtual drought on Thursday when the taps ran dry for the second consecutive day.

The Pune Municipal Corporation had announced a water closure on Wednesday in various parts for routine maintenance work at the Parvati water works. However, the non-completion of the 1200 mm size valve at Ambhil Odha within the specified time limit (near Neelayam bridge) and the subsequent bursting of the rising main’ pipeline outside Parvati water works delayed the water supply to various parts causing untold misery to the residents.

Residents of all the peths, Duttawadi, Rajendranagar, Sinhagad road and Shivajinagar among others were severely affected and had to stand in queues for several hours to fill their buckets. The general body meeting too saw fireworks over the issue when a host of corporators raved and ranted about the weekly closure of water.

Story continues below this ad

Corporators Ankush Kakade and Vikas Mathkari derided the inefficient management of the water crisis and pointed out that tankers were not provided while the telephones remained unanswered at the waterworks. V G Dhadphale, additional city engineer (water supply) admitted that panic was created when residents aired their complaints and the officials could not intimate them via All India Radio.

He explained that the gate for the low level reservoir at Parvati water works which had been built in 1969 had been damaged since last 18 years. In the event of repairing a pipeline, the gate is required to opened to release the water from the reservoir. The PMC had undertaken the repair work of this reservoir by commissioning a 1200 mm size valve at Ambhil Odha (near the Neelayam bridge).

The installation of the valve from the early hours, so as to restore the water supply, was delayed by the contractor, Dhadphale said. Panic caused by the irate residents who constantly complained about no water in their areas also led to the officials releasing the water from the reservoir after 12 noon. Due to lack of water in the reservoir, a vacuum was created as air was being sucked by the pumping machine. All this led to delay in restoring the water supply and residents of peths received water only by late evening.

The water woes did not end there as corporator Shailaja Khedkar raised the problem of the leakage of the Bopodi water tank due to which adequate water was not provided to the neighbouring areas of Dapodi, Aundh and Chikalwadi. The tank, built at a cost of Rs 16 lakh in 1984, had leaked right since then.