BMC promises Mumbai cleaner water; to reduce contamination this year

The BMC recently announced a 10 per cent water cut across the city ahead of approachingu00c3u0083u00c2u0082u00c3u0082u00c2u00a0summer season. File Pics

While the city continues to reel under a 10 per cent water cut, the civic body promises cleaner water in the future. Apart from its micro-planning to maintain constant water levels in its zonal reservoirs, the BMC also aims to bring down the contamination percentage of water to below 1 per cent in the future, against last year's (2017-18) 1.38 per cent.

The civic body will take up repair and replacement work of small pipelines that cause contamination at about 105 locations in 2019-20 to ensure this. While it hopes to contain contamination at 1 per cent this financial year (2018-19), the Water Department has, in its budget document, mentioned taking up repair work on 110 kms of water pipelines in the upcoming financial year. Rs 8.71 crore have been proposed for undertaking this work in the budget document released on Monday.

Water pipelines located around slums or near sewage or drainage lines are usually responsible for contamination, according to civic officials

The civic body has in the past reduced water contamination from 4.41 per cent in 2014-15 to 1.38 per cent in 2017-18. Contamination is primarily noticed in pipelines closer to slums or the ones located near sewage lines. The department thus removed a bunch of connections at 50 locations where they mixed with drainage or sewage lines underground in 2018-19.

A civic official said that about 200 samples are picked from all 24 wards across the city daily, which are then sent to the BMC laboratory for checking bacteria. Water from areas where complaints are made is also included in the sampling and an average percentage of contamination of water supplied to the city is drafted.

According to the 2017-18 contamination report, A and R central wards saw five per cent contamination level, after which the BMC took special efforts to ensure a reduction in contamination in these wards, sources said.

Ashok Tawadia, chief engineer of BMC's Hydraulic Engineering department, said, "We have been replacing the water mains for years and now that majority of the water supply system is overhauled, we have been able to reduce the contamination levels."

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