Water cuts in cities across Maharashtra

With the situation of rain worsening in the state of Maharashtra, cities across the state are bracing for the cut in water supply. Following the example of Pune, now Aurangabad is also set to face a 30 percent reduction in the daily water supply. As the rain god has chosen to remain away, the dams have failed to fill. This has forced the administration to enforce stricter measures.

Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporations announced on Monday to impose 30 and 20 per cent water cutsrespectively. State Water Resources Minister and guardian minister of city Ajit Pawar had ordered the cut in view of the water scarcity. "Last year by August 15, four dams that supply drinking water to Pune were filled up completely. As there is no sufficient rainfall this year, water storage is only 70 per cent of dams' capacity," Pawar informed after holding meeting with officials here today.
In Pimpri-Chinchwad where the dams suppling water to city were filled only up to 80 per cent, Pawar said.
A day after that, municipal corporation of Aurangabad also decided to reduce the water supply by 10 percent. The announcement was made by the guardian minister of the district Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil. Jaikwadi Dam, which is responsible for the water supply of the district has just 15 percent of water storage now. Minister also warned that the situation does not improve, meaning that if there are no rains in the return of monsoon, then the water cut can go higher. The situation is so severe that even supply to National Thermal Power Plant at Parli is also on the brink of severance. Local bodies in Gangapur, Vaijapur, Sillod, Khulatabad, Paithan and Kannad are also told to lessen their water use.

For the last ten days, I was in Nanded, the city of present chief minister of Maharashtra, Ashok Chavan. Ahead of the state legislative assembly elections, Chavan is on a promising spree in his home town. But he can not the assure the residents of Nanded a better water supply. It was in the month of June that extra money was pumped in the Godavari river flowing through Nanded so that the need of drinking water be fulfilled. There are no rains in the reason and state government has already declared 140 villages as drought affected. The residents are getting only one time water supply.

According to Ajit Pawar, all the reservoirs in Maharashtra together hold 15,252 million cubic meters (MCM) of water as on Monday, which is down from 19,206 MCM in the corresponding period previous year. The total installed reservoir capacity for the state is 33,085 MCM. Water availability remains only 12 percent of the installed capacity in the Marathwada region. Koyna dam has only 83 per cent water stored, while Jayakwadi and Ujani have 13 per cent and 33 per cent respectively.