Water to new houses cut by half

The civic administration has taken these harsh measures to cope with water shortage and growing demand. To make matters worse,the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) has refused to provide an additional 150 MLD water to the BMC.

“Water connection will not be provided for construction purposes — residential or commercial,” said additional municipal commissioner Anil Diggikar. A condition regarding the same has been added in the Intimation of Disapproval,which is required while commencing a construction project.

He said developers can dig wells or go for rainwater harvesting. “Developers will have to delay their construction projects as we are in no position to give any more water connections,” he said.

The civic administration had earlier proposed that buildings whose requirement will be more than 2 lakh litres per day will not receive water connection till 2011. However,it has now decided not to give such connections at all. Small housing societies require between 25,000 litres and 50,000 litres of water per day. Big residential complexes with multistorey buildings and numerous wings usually find their demand for water exceeding 2 lakh litres per day.

Diggikar also said new buildings will now be supplied 45 litres a person per day instead of 90 litres a person per day. “This norm will be applicable for all structures getting the Occupation Certificate hereafter,” he said.

This situation will continue till 2011,when the BMC’s ambitious Middle Vaitarna Project is scheduled to be completed and an additional 455 million litres per day will be augmented in the water supply of 3,400 mld. BMC sources water from dams across six lakes on the outskirts of Mumbai — Bhatsa,Tansa,Upper Vaitarna,Modak Sagar,Tulsi and Vihar. However,the actual demand is 4,250 mld. Additionally,around 600 mld of water is lost to leakages and pilferage.