Residents protest over leaking pipes, compel civic body to sanction Rs 1 crore for repair work it had been neglecting since eight years

Here's why you don't get water

Residents protest over leaking pipes, compel civic body to sanction Rs 1 crore for repair work it had been neglecting since eight years

The Pune Municipal Corporation could not have been less slack. About seven lakh litres of water are wasted on a weekly basis at Karve Road because of persistent water leakage from the cement pipes. This same quantity of water would be sufficient to fulfill the weekly requirement of at least 500 families.

Local residents claim this waste of purified and treated drinking water has been happening since eight years.

"On the one hand, the PMC announces 50 per cent water cut across the city, claiming it does not have enough water. On the other, it is so careless that despite persistent complaints, it does not plug leaks," said Ashok Joshi, a Law College Road resident who first raised the issue at a public meeting held by PMC officials.

Residents claim that the water leaking from the cement pipes mixes with sewer drains.

"We don't have water to cook food and here treated water is flowing into the drainage. We are fed up of informing PMC officials several times but they do not pay any heed," said Rekha Inamdar from Karve Nagar.u00a0
After residents created an uproar, local corporators Vikas Matkari and Medha Kulkarni were forced to take up the issue with the civic body. After much squabble, the PMC approved Rs 1 crore to repair the underground pipelines.

Leak unstoppable
However, P S Metkari, superintendent engineer, PMC, water supply, said the actual work would start only after monsoon.

"The work is complicated and the existing cement pipelines will have to be replaced with metal ones. So, leakage is unstoppable till after monsoon," he said.

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