The residents of Hajuri, Louiswadi and nearby areas continue to get raw water despite the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) changing the water pipeline last week.
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) supplies 30 mld raw water to Ambika Nagar, Padwal Nagar, Hajuri, Tekdi Bunglow, Kisannagar1 and 2, Dyaneshwar Nagar, Shivai and Vartak Nagar among others.
Following a protest by residents, who complained of receiving contaminated water, TMC had changed the raw water connection to pure water in Hajuri, Louiswadi, Namdev Wadi and Dyaneshwar Nagar area.
The civic body is blaming it on the low pressure water supplied through BMC pipelines.
The TMC has claimed that all the areas which receive raw water will get pure water by Friday. Nilesh Mahadik, 37, a resident of Dyaneshwar Nagar, said, “TMC inaugurated a new pipeline connection last week which was supposed to supply pure water. However, we are still getting raw water. There is no respite from muddy water.”
Residents have also taken to social networking sites to complain about the problem.
A Vartak Nagar resident, who did not wish to be named, said, “We boil the water and treat it with alum. The colour of the water remains black. We are facing health issues.”
The water department of the TMC said the pipeline work has failed as the BMC water supply was low-pressure. An official from the water department said, “We had changed the connection, but the flow rate of BMC pipe is less than what we had expected. We have asked them to give another connection.”
“We are also changing pipeline connections in Ambika Nagar, Indira Nagar and Kisannagar 1 and 2. All the areas which have been receiving raw water will get fresh water in two days,” he said.
The official added that the problem in Vartak Nagar will persist as the water is supplied by BMC pipeline through Mhada. “We have changed the new Mhada building pipelines, however, there are still three BMC connections in Vartak Nagar and Shivai areas, supplying water to 25,000 residents. The residents might have to wait for few more months,” he said.
The BMC engineer said the Thane civic body’s unconventional distribution network is to be blamed for the problem.
A BMC official said, “We had shifted the pipelines to Louiswadi network where pure water is supplied. In case of a regular water supply network, the water is first supplied to elevated service reservoirs and then to houses. In TMC network, the water is directly supplied to houses. The pipes fitted are of bigger diameter than required so there was a pressure drop in the supply. They want a separate connection and we have started the work on it.”
He said the separate connection will be operational in two days. “Our treatment plant is at Bhandup, so we can supply only raw water to TMC. The TMC has enough supply and does not need raw water supply. We have proposed closing these lines as they are also old pipelines.”
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