How 10 lakh litres are stolen every day

Gang drills hole in major pipeline supplying water to city to fill artificial well, from where water is transferred to50 tankers daily

How 10 lakh litres are stolen every day

Gang drills hole in major pipeline supplying water to city to fill artificial well, from where water is transferred to 50 tankers daily

If you're wondering why your taps are dry for hours every day despite the city getting abundant rainfall and some of the lakes crossing their overflow mark, blame it on the unchecked water mafia which has been pilfering nearly 10 lakh litres a day from one location itself. The figure adds up to a whopping 3 crore litres a month.

Pumping us dry: This pumpu00a0is used to fill water from the Thane

A tip-off followed by an intense two-day investigation by MiD DAY has led this paper to discover one such closely-guarded location in Thane. Photographs reveal that the water mafia has drilled a hole into a Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) pipeline in Kharegaon to fill an artificial well that is then used to fill water tankers for supply in Thane and Mumbai.u00a0

Municipal Corporation pipeline to the tankers. Pics/Sameer Markande

The pipeline, which supplies water to Thane as well as Mumbai, has been illegally tapped into at TMC's outer limits, close to Kalyan. Nearly 50 tankers having a capacity of 20,000 litres are filled at this spot every day, which then make their way to homes and institutions, including a prominent hospital in Nahur. Here's a blow-by-blow account of the investigation:

1 A member of the water mafia gang checks a pump under the main
water pipeline, which is connected to a water tank in the foreground.

Day 1 (Friday)
We received information that the water supplied to a Nahur hospital was being stolen from a pipeline by the water mafia. MiD DAY decided to visit the hospital and saw tankers of Pratik Water Supply stationed there. Security guards told this reporter the timings of the tankers and we decided to follow one of them.

2 Another worker connects a pipe to the underground water tank to
pump the collected water to a tanker.

Having learnt that Pratik Water Supply owns 20 tankers which supply nearly 10 lakh litres of water on a daily basis, we set out to find out the source of their water. At 2 pm, this reporter trailed one of the company's tankers from the hospital for nearly 30 minutes before seeing it get parked at an isolated wooded area in Kharegaon.

3 A long pipe is connected to the water tanker that is parked by the
roadside.

Amidst the dense trees was the TMC pipeline and it was immediately clear that water was being tapped from it to fill an artificial well. Besides the workers, the well was being guarded by more than 12 men armed with knives and sickles.

4 The water tanker ufffd filled with 20,000 litres of stolen water makes
its way to the city. pics/sameer markande

When this reporter tried to get a photograph of water being pumped into the tankers from the well, he was spotted by the men, who tried to give chase as he sped away on a bike. However, having realised that the photograph wasn't proper, he went to the spot again but was chased by an armed man, who was also on a bike, for a considerable distance.

Day 2
At 12 pm on Saturday, this reporter and a photographer went to the spot again to get photographic evidence. They kept watch on the men's activities for close to four hours and seized the opportunity at 3 pm, when most of the men went for lunch.

A driver and a cleaner spotted them after a few minutes, but that much time was enough for our photographer to click pictures exposing their illegal activities, which are depriving tax-paying citizens of sufficient water supply.

Dynamics
A senior official from one of the institutions that buys water from private suppliers said, "Such suppliers thrive because municipal corporations usually say that they can't give you water because of a shortage. If you have the right contacts, the corporations may give you one 11,000-litre tanker a day at the most. These suppliers, however, give you as much water as you need, albeit for a much higher price than the corporation's price of Rs 600 per tanker."

In fact, when this reporter called up Pratik Water Suppliers posing as a customer, he said they would provide as much water as we need at the rate of Rs 3,000 for a 11,000-litre tanker and Rs 4,500 for a 20,000-litre tanker. The employee said that they supply potable water too.

700 mn
The number of litres of water that is being lost to leakage and theft every day. The city's supply shortfall is currently 850 million litres

Number game
Mumbai
Water requirement:u00a0 4200 million litres a day (mld)
Supply: 3350 mld
Shortfall: 850 mld
Loss due to leakage and theft: 700 mld
Thane
Water requirement: 422 million litres a day
Loss due to leakage and theft: Not available
A TMC official said they are making up for the supply shortage by diverting water from a pipeline in Bhiwandi.

The Other Side
When contacted, Ganesh Bhayti, an employee from Pratik Water Suppliers, said, "The water leaks from the pipeline by itself. All we have done is dig a hole to collect the water. We give out the water to gardens etc and don't deal in potable water. We are not doing anything illegal, ask the boss for any more information." Bhayti declined further comment and refused to give out the name of the company owner. When this reporter called up TMC Commissioner RA Rajeev, he said, "I don't talk on Sundays," and hung up. He did not respond to text messages seeking comment on the story. Vishwas Vhase, superintendent engineer, TMC Water Department, said, "There were instances of water theft in our jurisdiction in the past but we have taken action and eradicated the problem. I have no idea about this particular location."