Mumbai Water Crisis: Tanker Owners Strike Disrupts Water Supply to Commercial and Residential Areas | Photo Credits:
Mumbai: There appears to be no end to the huge crisis caused in the city following the decision of water tanker owners to cease operations. Hundreds of commercial establishments and residential buildings have been starved of non-potable water for the past five days. The real estate industry is also feeling the pinch.
Spokesperson for the Water Tanker Owners Association Anukur Sharma told FPJ on Saturday “The problem can be solved only if chief minister Devendra Fadnavis convenes a meeting of all stakeholders. It should include representatives of the central ground water authority, BMC and our association. The new rules for ground water extraction are meant for the whole of India. But, they are being implemented only in Mumbai and that too without factoring the ground reality in the metropolis.”
Sharma said “The new rules are not being implemented in Nalasopara, Vasai Virar and Navi Mumbai where tanker water is being supplied as before. The BMC has put the new regulations on hold till June 15. By then the rains will come and our demands will be forgotten.”
The four main demands of the association is that the authorities should not insist on a vacant 200 metre area around wells and borewells, allow tankers to be parked on roads while water is being filled, the digital flow meters should be installed by the BMC and not third parties and the notices and penalties imposed on tanker operators should be revoked.
Mumbai has about 350 fleet owners between whom they operate around 2,500 tankers with capacity ranking from 500 litres each to 20,000 litres. Sharma said there is a demand for tanker water because of the BMC’s failure to meet increasing demand.
He said his association supplies daily about 350 MLD of non-potable water and 50 MLD of drinking water. The BMC, on its part, is worried that the lakes supplying water to the city have only 34 % of their capacity. City BJP president and minister Ashish Shelar has taken the initiative to defuse the crisis, but there has not been much headway.
