Water woes turn villagers against merger

Residents of Phursungi doubt civic body will be able to resolve their problem of inadequate water supply, say PMC track record doesn't look encouraging

Water woes turn villagers against merger

Certain that the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is struggling to supply water to areas within its jurisdiction presently, Phursungi village residents are averse to the merger within PMC limits, as they feel the civic body would not be able to bear the extra burden of providing water to them.

Contaminated: Phursungi Grampanchayat office; (inset) Development Officer R N Raykar. PICs/Imzanglu Aier

In fact water woes have reached such a state that Phursungi grampanchayat development officer R N Raykar buys a bottle of mineral water to quench his thirst, as he believes the water in the village is contaminated. The health conscious officer says it is better to spend money on mineral water than suffer from water borne diseases by drinking water in the village. In fact, many villagers only drink mineral water.

“We are not ready to merge within PMC limits, and one of the reasons is the inadequate and irregular water supply,” said Raju Kisan Chand, deputy sarpanch, Phursungi. “A resolution regarding the same was passed in gram sabha (village meeting) three days ago,” he added. Ironically, Phursungi village, is located just a few kilometres away from Hadapsar, and still does not get regular supply of filtered water from PMC.

Underground water in the village is polluted, allege villagers, because of the civic body’s dumping ground at Devachi Urali, which close to Phursungi. “The water contains enormous contents of salt and sulphur that has led many villagers to develop kidney stone and other related diseases,” Raykar said. “There is a grave water scarcity in our village and we have to get water from Bhekrainagar, where PMC’s water comes only once in four days. A six-inch wide water pipeline is in place, but we don’t get any water supply from PMC who wants us to merge in their limits with other 27 fringe villages.”

Woes run deep
Sadesatranali, another fringe village, also doesn’t get any water from PMC. “Our own office employees fetch water from a public tap in Hadapsar, about 2-km away from the office everyday,” said Neelesh Pawar, senior clerk working at the grampanchyat office in the village. “Despite several reminders, we don’t get filtered water from PMC. Our village requires a total 2.4-lakh litres of water. Ours is the only village deprived of drinking water,” he said.

Meanwhile, allaying fears of the villagers, Avinash Surve, chief engineer, Irrigation department, Pune, said, “Pune city gets an adequate water supply of 11.5 TMC, which could easily cater to these 28 fringe villages. PMC should only ensure a proper distribution,” u00a0Surve argued, “We can’t provide additional water on the basis that PMC is incorporating 28 villages.

With the present population of 40 lakh in Pune city, PMC requires 600 MLD water supply, add to that the additional requirement for the 10 lakh population (total 50 lakh) in 28 villages, the civic body requires a total 750 MLD water per day. Presently, PMC is already lifting 1,150 MLD water per day from Khadakwasala Dam, which is suffice.”

V G Kulkarni, superintendent engineer, (Water Supply) PMC, disagreed with Surve. He said, “The geographic location of Pune has made it difficult for us to distribute water everywhere in the same quantity. The additional 28 villages may add more problems while supplying water. We shall make another proposal of 19 TMC of water to the irrigation department soon.”

Factsheet
Bavdhan 1.50 L ltr

Sus 1.25 L ltr

Mahalunge 1.0 L ltr

Dhayari 3.50 L ltr

K’dakwasla 1.75 Lltr

Kirkitwadi 5.0 L ltr

Kopre 2.0 L ltr

Keshavnag’r 4.5 L ltr

Manjri 2.0 L ltr

D. Urali 2.5 L ltr

Undri 1.5 L ltr

Phursungi 7.0 L ltru00a0