Water crisis in Pune - news links

Daily water supply reduced:

"Despite 30 per cent water cuts, some parts of the city will continue to get 100 per cent supply, while other parts in the fringe areas never get sufficient water," Bharatiya Janata Party corporator Ujwal Keskar.

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has reduced the quantity of daily water supplied to the city with immediate effect instead of opting for supply of water on alternate days.

The PMC had imposed 40 per cent water cuts in the first week of July and then had announced a withdrawal of 20 per cent in water cuts by the end of July. Now, again, the PMC has increased water cuts by 10 per cent which takes up the total water cuts to 30 per cent.

The Khadakwasla, Panshet, Varasgaon and Temghar dams which supply water to Pune collectively have 19.61 TMC of water, as of now, which is 70.23 per cent of the total capacity.

To read more, please, visit The Times of India

White paper on water supply demanded:

"Time has come that the PMC makes some facts clear to the citizens. What quantity of water does the city gets? What system does the PMC has to measure water? The PMC gets 30 per cent less water from the closed pipeline system and, now, it has imposed 30 per cent water cut. How will the PMC measure 30 per cent water cut and on what basis?," Vivek Velankar, Sajag Nagrik Manch (SNM).

In a letter to municipal commissioner Mahesh Zagade, SNM said that the people will co-operate with the administration in the hour of crisis. Read More

PMC prepares to tackle water crisis:

"Though the PMC claims that it provides 205 litre of water per head, instead of the required 135 litre, the fact is that a majority of the fringe areas, especially villages merged within the civic limits, have to depend on tankers for their water needs," Vijay Kumbhar, civic activist.

Under the special measures, the PMC plans to dig five borewells in each of the 144 wards in the city.

Every ward will also get 20 water tanks, each with a capacity of 1,000 litre, for water storage and supply.

PMC plans to utilise the existing 399 wells and 4,820 bore wells in the city if the water shortage escalates.

The Groundwater Survey and Development Agency (GSDA) survey has said that 155 dug wells and 1,575 bore wells in the city have potable drinking water.

Meanwhile, the PMC is also reviewing the situation of tankers supplying water in city.

As far as long-term planning goes, sourcing water from the Bhama Askhed dam in Khed taluka is one of the options that the administration is looking at. The civic body has prepared a Rs 260-crore plan and has sought financial help from the state and the central governments for the project.

Also, a direct water-pipeline from Khadakwasla and Varasgaon dams to the city is being planned to meet the long-term drinking water requirements under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme. Read More

Water crisis in India:

India's water use 'unsustainable':

Parts of India are on track for severe water shortages, according to results from Nasa's gravity satellites.

The Grace mission discovered that in the country's north-west - including Delhi - the water table is falling by about 4cm (1.6 inches) per year.

Writing in the journal Nature, they say rainfall has not changed, and water use is too high, mainly for farming.

About a quarter of India is experiencing drought conditions, as the monsoon rains have been weaker and later than usual.
But weather and climatic factors are not responsible for water depletion.....Read More

A massive water crisis can bring Indian economy down – an early signal comes from Unesco:

Water crisis is a major problem in India.
Fresh drinking water shortage is even a bigger crisis.
Indian economy is dependent on water.
Indian government has done little to address the massive water shortage problem and its impact on overall infrastructure of the nation. Read More

Right to Water National Conference and Protest Against Coca-Cola:

We reject the commercialization of water. Human rights cannot be traded and markets cannot and must not decide who has access to water.

Yet, the Indian government is allowing multinational companies, both Indian and foreign, to enter the water business. Predictably, the result is that more and more communities are left without water, while private companies make profit from selling and trading water.

A significant example of such egregious behavior comes from the Coca-Cola company, which has continued to extract millions of liters of water everyday in India while communities who reside around its bottling plants are left thirsting for water. Read More

Water crisis in India - Is subsidizing water a sustainable solution?:

Even though water contribution is highly subsidized practically in almost all cities of India, very few Below Poverty Line (BPL) families actually have water connections in their houses, most of BPL people don’t even have a permanent household, i.e. even though government provides subsidy schemes for the poor, but poor are unable to get any use of it,

While upper income families gets advantage from these subsidies system although they could have paid for the water righteously.

Since they gets subsidized water, they never understands the real value of it and spends it profusely, on the other hand BPL people remains dependent on the NagarPalika free-water supply tanks or bring water from public water posts, water tankers, or public wells or rivers or fountains. Read More

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