Civic body to speed up work on 8 water treatment plants

MUMBAI: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to speed up work on eight waste water treatment facilities (WWTF) planned in the city. The move, which was announced by civic chief Ajoy Mehta during a review meeting on Friday, is being made in a bid to augment a parallel source of water for non-potable purposes.

Part of the plan involves laying new pipelines that will channel the treated water to bulk users from the city’s lakes for non-potable purposes.

Accordingly, Mehta, during the Friday meeting, directed civic officers to begin preparatory work on the WWTFS. Once complete, they will produce an estimated 2,000 million litres of water a day.

This is intended to help bulk users, such as Western and Central Railways, Airport authorities, the Indian Navy at Mumbai, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited.

Currently, BMC supplies drinking water to these bulk users for non-potable purposes such as washing trains or water supply in railway washrooms, airports and railway stations, according to information from the BMC.

Mumbai receives water from seven lakes – Upper Vaitarna, Middle Vaitarna, Bhatsa, Vehar, Tulsi, Modak Sagar and Tansa.

Collectively, the lakes currently have only 62 per cent useful water content remaining, as of December 21.

The water content available on the same day in 2017 was 77 per cent.

This indicates a 12 percent shortfall in water available for supply to the city. On November 15, BMC imposed a 10 per cent cut in drinking water supply, in addition to a 15 per cent cut in supply timing.