PUNE: As the city prepares for the Thursday water cut, residents hope for a smoother restoration than last week, when the single-day shutdown left many areas waiting hours, even days, for the supply to normalise.
Officials from the Pune Municipal Corporation are working to improve the distribution network and address ongoing issues.
The concern goes beyond delayed restoration. Across several parts of Pune, residents said they had been battling low water pressure throughout the week, triggering shortages and forcing families to carefully ration whatever water they received.NCP (SP) member in Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) Kaka Chavan said the delayed restoration had once again exposed glaring weaknesses in the city’s water distribution network. “Citizens are unhappy with the low-pressure supply and poor management of distribution. Water is available in overhead tanks, yet many localities are not getting adequate supply. The problem is uneven distribution,” Chavan said.The issue has resonated beyond opposition benches. During the recent PMC general body meeting, several corporators voiced concerns over what they described as a worsening distribution crisis. Congress leader Chandu Kadam warned that the city was already struggling to recover from a single-day shutdown.“If Pune cannot restore normal supply after a one-day cut, how will it cope if harsher restrictions are imposed during late winter or peak summer? The administration must urgently take comprehensive steps to prevent a deeper water crisis,” he said.Those fears are not unfounded. The irrigation department has already suggested stricter restrictions further by moving from a weekly shutdown to an alternate-day supply model, effectively leaving residents without water for three to four days every week. While PMC sources said such a drastic step was not immediately on the cards, they acknowledged that restrictions could be intensified gradually if the situation deteriorated.For residents who are already struggling, the prospect is alarming. Aundh resident Punit Kadam said the civic authorities must focus on three priorities after every shutdown — ensuring water reaches all areas by Friday afternoon, increasing supply volumes on Friday and boosting pressure across the network. “The authorities also need to closely monitor valve operations so that every locality gets its fair share of water,” he said.Hadapsar resident Amey Satav alleged that citizens were effectively facing hidden water cuts already. “PMC has indirectly imposed additional restrictions by reducing pressure in the distribution lines,” he alleged.Facing mounting criticism, officials from PMC’s water supply department said teams had been working to clear bottlenecks in the network and improve distribution. They expressed confidence that the restoration exercise following Thursday’s shutdown would be quicker and more efficient.The residents, however, said confidence in supply would be restored only when the taps started flowing again.
