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Mumbai always have a scarcity of water

Due to these repair works; the water supply will be under low pressure in the above-mentioned wards between January 29 and February 4.

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water problem, water scarcity, mumbai, bmc, water issues, drinking water
Image: PTI

Mumbai is a large city and has grown over a long period of time, and with many people. There is always a shortage of supply or of distribution? Many large cities have major leaks in their distribution piping, as old, undocumented pipes fail, and new additions to systems and to new customers overload the old piping. In a large urban area, it is easy for new users to “hot tap” into distribution piping without the utility knowing.

Half of the city will not get water for 24 hours, from January 30 at 10 am to January 31 at 10 am, due to repair work. Dadar will get 25 per cent less water on the same day. The water supply will be at low pressure from January 29 to February 4. Water supply will be completely cut off in nine wards of Western suburbs. The nine wards are — K East, K West, P South, P North, R South, R Central, R North, H East, and H West. Water supply will also be completely cut off in many areas of S, N, and L wards in the eastern suburbs.

In addition to the above, there will be a 25 per cent reduction in water supply in Mahim West, Dadar West, Prabhadevi, and Matunga West in the ‘G North’ and ‘G South’ wards. Whereas in the Dharavi area, where water supply is provided between 4 pm and 9 pm, the water supply will be completely cut off on January 30. Due to these repair works; the water supply will be under low pressure in the above-mentioned wards between January 29 and February 4.

Given the demographics in Mumbai, we all know how densely populated the city is. And the entire city depends on a few reservoirs for its water supply. Even if we manage the water distribution perfectly, the water will probably only just be enough, at best. Wastage of water is rampant. Right from people in their households to leaking main supply pipes and everything in between is the reason for water waste. There are many elements that purposely damage supply pipes in order to ‘steal’ water to run their own water business. And people in households are equally guilty of taking water for granted and wasting water. The end result is a lot of water which could otherwise have been used, literally goes down the drain. And we are left with shortages and water cuts.

Usually, people in the chawls and slums face water shortages, yet we can see running taps outside homes. People in the buildings wash their galleries when it is really not necessary. They hook up the pipe to the tap and wash cars. Some people won’t keep yesterday’s water today citing religious reasons. Even after telling people not to waste water, many buildings still waste it carelessly.

When the Government desires for a project, a lot of displacement & rehabilitation stands as a hurdle. You cannot destroy forests without forest & environment clearance. Whenever a dam/reservoir is thought of people come forward against it because of displacement from their birthplace or native land. A big area gets submerged in a reservoir. So rainwater harvesting is the only alternative to recharge groundwater. To direct water to the aquifer, we are to construct numerous dug wells, tanks, ponds, contour trenches etc. No bore wells should be dug up to aquifers in a tank or pond to send water underground for storage & rising of the groundwater table. The rainwater should be sent to the aquifer after filtration using a filter unit.

Basically, the city needs water investment planning. For technical fields, we need technical men who understand matters. There are several factors that will really affect the water situation in coming years such as population growth in the city. With the exploitation of groundwater and mismanagement of water resources, people do not really care about saving water or at least not wasting it. It is very common in India that we will preach on social issues and environmental issues but won’t really do anything about it. Rapid industrial growth is also one of the main reasons for water scarcity.

We have a lack of on-time de-silting operations in large water bodies that can enhance water storage capacity during monsoon, cutting trees in order to create concrete jungles that will lower the chances of rain in future and thus decrease groundwater level. Lack of efficient water management and distribution of water between urban consumers, the agriculture sector and industry is another major reason for the shortage of water. The government needs to enhance its investment in technology to ensure the optimization of existing resources. Plus, the way we are wasting water in the already drought-hit areas is also an example of showing how much we really care about this problem.

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Vaidehi Taman
Vaidehi Tamanhttps://authorvaidehi.com
Vaidehi Taman an Accredited Journalist from Maharashtra is bestowed with three Honourary Doctorate in Journalism. Vaidehi has been an active journalist for the past 21 years, and is also the founding editor of an English daily tabloid – Afternoon Voice, a Marathi web portal – Mumbai Manoos, and The Democracy digital video news portal is her brain child. Vaidehi has three books in her name, "Sikhism vs Sickism", "Life Beyond Complications" and "Vedanti". She is an EC Council Certified Ethical Hacker, OSCP offensive securities, Certified Security Analyst and Licensed Penetration Tester that caters to her freelance jobs.
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