Improper distribution system hampers water supply of city

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, May 6:

The mismanagement in city’s water distribution system has reached to an height of tolerance. The demand of water is 210 MLD and the availability is between 125-130 MLD. Despite knowing the imbalance between the demand and the availability, the AMC officials failed to take adequate measures to maintain equal gap of days in water supply.

Many parts of the city receive water on gap of 8-10 days, while some areas get water on gap of four days. Besides, some areas receive water in taps at between 4 am and 5 am, while many areas receive between 11.30 pm to 1 am. The officials get less time to fill up the elevated storage reservoirs (ESRs). Hence the water supply has to resume with the available stock of water in the ESRs. There is absence of core team of civic officials to monitor the water distribution system.

There are more than 250 lineman. They play a vital role in the distribution of water. Of the total staff, 50 per cent linemen are on contract basis and rest are on AMC’s establishment. The citizens are victim of the whims and fancies of these linemen as they are the one who decide over duration of water supply (either 50 minutes or for hours?). Again there sans system to check the distribution system. It is alleged that these linemen has political affiliation and act as puppet in the hands of political leaders and activists. There is a huge irregularity in the water supply section.

Large number of diversions

The number of diversions (through fixation of valves) is creating an obstruction in water supply section. There are atleast 15 diversions in each ward. If any lane is not receiving water then the officials fix a valve and divert so that the people in the specific lane could receive water. It takes around 5-6 hours for AMC to supply water in each ward. However, the people who are having connection from main pipeline in the ward gets water for 5-6 hours.

The main pipelines have got punctured due to large number of legal and illegal connections. It is a major obstruction in water supply, as well as headache for the AMC, everytime. The residents do not get adequate quantity of water in their taps due to punctured pipelines. For reasons better known to AMC, the officers had never ever dared to disconnect these illegal connections. Ironically, many citizens are drawing water in large capacity through using big horse power quantity’s electric motor machines.