11 May,2011 06:05 AM IST | | Vivek Sabnis
Drinking water sold at exorbitant rates in scarcity-hit areas as PMC says it has no control over prices pvt suppliers charge after tanking up at its filling stations
Water scarcity in the city has so emboldened the tanker water suppliers that they are selling drinking water at exorbitant rates. And the cruel joke is that they are buying the water cheap from none other than the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which says it is unable to control the situation.
Making a killing: Tankers fill water at the Ramtekdi water filling station
yesterday. The water is sold in areas where PMC supply is low.
Pic/Jignesh Mistry
Private tankers purchase water from PMC water filling stations at nominal rates, but they charge bungalows and housing societies as much as five times the cost price. The PMC charges Rs 300 for 10,000 litres of water, Rs 400 for 1,500 litres and Rs 500 for 20,000 litres. As the water scarcity is increasing in many suburban areas, including Hadapsar, Kondhwa, Wanawadi, Yerawada, Katraj and Baner, the rates of tanker water supplied to housing societies are skyrocketing.
MiD DAY surveyed the Parvati Water Works on Sinhagad Road and Ramtekdi and found that the PMC supplies water in these areas between 8 am and 6 pm everyday except Sunday. "PMC provides water passes to the tankers and then each tanker gets filled. Many times there is a long queue. In a day, we can provide water to 60 to 80 tankers, depending on the water pressure," said Sanjay Devkar, a PMC water booking clerk.
When MiD DAY contacted Jadhav Water Supplier, a private company which purchases water from the PMC, the booking clerk said that the rate at which the company sold water was Rs 1,200 for 10,000 litres and Rs 2,200 for 20,000 litres for the nearest area. "The rates are this much as we charge diesel cost also to the consumers," the clerk said.u00a0It was the same story at Samarth Water Suppliers.
The rate was Rs 3,000 for 20,000 litres of water supplied to NIBM Kondhwa area from Ramtekdi. "There is scarcity of water in our area and buying water from tankers is getting to be a costly affair,"said Anil Salunke, a Vimannagar resident. "The situation is quite bad this year too as the tankers charge Rs 1,600 for 10,000 litres of water. The PMC sometimes declares a water cut and the tankers provide us water at whatever prices they feel like. It is really a strange business."
Residents of Hadapsar, Kondhwa and Wanawadi have no option but to pay the high charges to the tanker owners as they get PMC water at low pressure. Digambar Mane, an activist working with NGO Yuva Vikas Sanstha, said he had caught red-handed a tanker owner who was not giving receipts to society customers.
"The PMC has no control over the selling of tanker water," he said. V G Kulkarni, Development Engineer, Water Supply, PMC, said, "We sell the water to tankers but have not decided on at what rates they should sell the water to their customers. There are no such set norms. Last year there was a fixed rate because the scarcity
was severe. This year we are yet to formalise a standard rate card."
Low pressure
Milindu00a0Nagar in Mundhwa is one of the worst affected areas as far as water scarcity goes. It has been battling this situation for two months. Residents keep awake in the night to get water from neighborhood taps. Two residents, Leela Lokhande and Jyotsna Kamble, have submitted a written application to the PMC for a regular tanker service to their area.
The Other Side
Balasaheb Gondhale, president of the Water Tankers Association, agreed that charging Rs 1,500 for 10,000 litres was too much, but argued that the pass holders face many problems while getting water from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) water filling centres. "We have to pay the salary of the driver and the cost of diesel is also Rs 42 per litre. We earn money for our livelihood and like other businesses we also have to make
a profit. Last year, many of us had distributed water free of cost when water scarcity had reached alarming levels," he said.
Water waste
Even as many parts of the city are staring at water closure on Thursday, several thousand litres of water was going waste at the Gangadham Chowk in Kondhwa at 5.30 pm yesterday. A big fountain of water was seen spewing out from a pipe for hours at the chowk. The PMC water supply department responded very late to the situation despite the fact that many locals had contacted the water officer concerned and asked for the repair of the pipe.
