Pavana full, yet not enough water for residents of Pimpri Chinchwad

Pimpri Chinchwad: The Pavana dam, which supplies water to nearly 25 lakh people in Pimpri Chinchwad, is full to the brim. With bountiful rains in August and the beginning of September, the dam now has storage to last another 365 days.

Yet, the PCMC has not been able to supply even 100 litres of water to each person in many parts of the township despite lifting at the rate of 145 litres per day per person and borrowing some water from MIDC areas.

“We hardly get 50 to 60 litre water from PCMC,” said Santosh Maskar, chairman of over 1,000 apartment Roseland Residency in Pimple Saudagar.

However, it is a tough task for the society committees as they toil to provide at least 135 litres per day per person. Many still depend on water tankers despite several initiatives. “We get 45,000 to 1.35 lakh litres every alternate day for our 1,000 members. We depend on 10-14 tankers daily even now,” said Balvinder Singh, secretary, Siddhivinayak Ginger Society.

“The distribution system has not kept pace with the rapid development. We have issued a tender for relaying of many pipelines under government’s Amrut scheme, but that will take another two years,” PCMC commissioner Shravan Hardikar said.

The civic body is also building elevated water reservoirs in different parts of the township but progress is tardy. For instance, the 15 lakh EWR work in a garden in Pimple Saudagar has been under construction for nearly two years.

Meanwhile, societies are extracting water from almost 300-feet beneath ground, against recommended 60-70 feet by ground water survey agency.

The PCMC has pinned its hope on getting water from Andhra and Bhama Ashked dams, both of which are still fledgling projects.