Maharashtra's water woes: CM Fadnavis announces panel on crisis in Mumbai

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government will appoint an experts’ committee to suggest measures to solve Mumbai’s water woes, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday. The committee will prepare a roadmap for equal distribution of water and suggest measures to prevent leakages and provide round-the-clock water to the megapolis. It will submit its report in the next two months, the CM said. The Chief Minister conceded that over 27 per cent or some 900 million litre of water gets wasted everyday in the city. [caption id=“attachment_2674728” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. PTI[/caption] Replying to a calling attention motion of Yogesh Sagar (BJP), Fadnavis said the distribution in the island city and the suburbs should be equal and on the basis of population. The BMC (civic body) supplies 960-975 million litres daily (MLD) of water to the island city’s 31 lakh population, 920-930 MLD to eastern suburbs’ 30 lakh population, while the area from Goregaon to Dahisar, with a population of 30 lakh, gets only 620 MLD of water. This is an injustice to the suburban region, Sagar said. “The government should appoint a committee to study feasibility of equal, population-based distribution,” he said. Sagar also said the committee should not have any serving or retired BMC officials, because they may favour no change in the existing water distribution network. Fadnavis said the government will come up with a roadmap for solving all water-related issues of Mumbai. “Committee will suggest how to provide 24-hour water to the city, its equal distribution and solution to the leakages,” he said. The municipal commissioner will be asked to take suggestions from the legislators for fixing the terms of reference of the committee. Talking about leakages, the Chief Minister said though about 27 per cent of water is lost to leakages or theft, BMC was trying to reduce them by adopting various measures like replacement of old distribution lines. To a question by another BJP MLA, Amit Satam, Fadnavis said a desalination plant will be set up for the entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region, as monsoons are becoming erratic due to the climate change. “Though it will be an expensive project, the government will consider it on a pilot basis soon,” Fadnavis said.