Evolution of a metropolitan city: Pune bosses on what the future holds

Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar said that water consumption in the city will be reduced with the implementation of the 24x7 water supply scheme as many of the water leakages that currently mar the water supply will be removed once and for all. Replying to a query on whether the water quota of the city will be minimised by irrigation department following the allocation of three TMC (thousand million cubic feet) water supply to the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) by the state government, he said that the amount of water that the city will save after the implementation of the 24x7 water supply project will be redistributed to areas under PMRDA.

He was speaking at the press interaction organised by the Pune Union of Working Journalists on Thursday with Pune municipal commissioner Kunal Kumar, district collector Saurabh Rao and Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) chief executive officer Kiran Gitte. 

Water resource minister Girish Mahajan, on Wednesday, had approved a three TMC water quota for PMRDA, which will be used for Hinjewadi and Wagholi area. As the irrigation department approved the water quota from the dams providing water to the city, many residents and Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials had raised concern over the probability of the city losing its current water quota. 

Kunal Kumar said that as the Pune Municipal Corporation is going to execute the 24x7 water supply scheme with topmost priority, it will able to save water from its allotted quota soon. He added that although only 11.5 TMC water has been allotted to Pune city per annum, it ends up consuming almost 15 TMC water per annum. Due to unforeseen leakages in water networks, almost 50 percentage of the allotted quota is lost. “Once the 24x7 water supply project is complete, PMC will be able to save quite a large amount of water, which can then be redistributed to other citizens,” he said. Kumar accepted that the irrigation department’s decision to give three TMC water to areas under PMRDA from dams that supply water to PMC will definitely affect some areas of the city.

PMRDA chief Kiran Gitte and district collector Saurabh Rao said that residents of areas under the PMRDA were also Puneites and that they too need water. Further, they added that the amount of water saved with the implementation of the 24x7 water supply scheme will be used for distributing water to other areas. 

Gitte said that of the three TMC water allocated to PMRDA, 1.5 TMC water will be distributed to people staying in Hinjewadi, Sus, Bavdhan and Maan areas. The remaining 1.5 TMC water will be distributed in Wagoli area. 

Rao said that even in rural areas, due to the Jalswaraj scheme, the water requirement of many villages had come down. “But the water storage is going to remain the same and the administration needs to plan better to ensure water supply throughout the year,” said Rao. 

Further, at the event, all three senior IAS officers briefed the media about various activities going on in their respective departments and the fate of the city’s future projects. They added that though their departments are different, they were interlinked and that all the officers are working together for the development of the city.